Bumping this bitch so that I can have a moan..
I have 2 gmail accounts. One that I use for my android phone and one that I use for personal emails (which is also linked to various online payment methods etcetc).
I keep them separate, why?. Because I don't want to walk around with a mobile that's so deeply connected to my personal and financial 'on-line' life. I could lose it, it could be stolen, a million things; and the last thing I need is paypal, ebay, facebook, personal email blah blah logins falling into the wrong hands.
So..
I have 3 youtube accounts. Why?. I have no idea.. From uploading uni videos, music videos, video for family to see - and an account that I actually use/remain logged into, in order to watched flagged vids and comment.
I spent my 2 existing gmail addys registering for my 2 nonsense youtube accounts, so of course now I have nothing to link my main youtube account to.
No problem, we'll create a gmail account... Is it irritating?. Well of course!, why on earth would I want to link my activity on one website to that on another?, and to be forced like this?, very odd.. Also it does seem mighty strange that I'm forced to link youtube to a gmail account that I'm creating for no other purpose than to appease a youtube sign-in form?, again, very odd. But ho hum, it's not my server space/bandwidth, who am I to question.. Until.. Oh my, I need to verify my existence by inputting my mobile number, wow - curiouser and curiouser.
TL : DR^ - Here's my concern..
Without hunting for links and trudging through the mire of google global takeover conspiracy nuts, what do I, as a basic consumer, know that they are harvesting?.
At a very basic level they seem to have, or want;
* Keywords from my personal, educational and business emails (header and content). Images, files, descriptions thereof. Anything contained in my gmail account; shopping habits, appointments in google calander, gmail chat logs, possibly transcripts of google voice calls etc.
* My email signup information; DOB, address, name, region etc.
* A history of all of the youtube videos I watch, the music I listen to, the comments I make and any messages I might send/receive using youtube.
* My google search history, any links I click away from my search.
* Chrome users?, dear me - Search history, address bar (Omni-box) inputs (potentially all keystrokes! - turn that auto-suggest off!, yowzers)
* My mobile telephone number and or land line, alternative email addresses.
* My precise gps location (if permitted in browser (on by default?) -using an android handset here, standard browser).
*Picasa web album?, I don't use it personally, but it is tied to gmail accounts, includes facial recognition, automatically tagging names/people etc after a point.
*My google books history, reading habits, annotations.
*Ad clicks/activities on millions of third party websites who partake in google advertisement services/Adsense.
*Google health. Any inputted data relating to my physical form/fitness across time. Potentially full health records, medications etc.
*Google android apps?. Without searching I can't find out what they harvest, and I'm lazy. Location markers from google maps/earth?. Quick search data, latitude data, google talk, contact details, google shopper, buzz, calender, 'google finance' data. All linked to a sole gmail account that I have to have in order to use my android phone.
I'm sure there's a hell of a lot more, but as I said, I'm lazy, and this is just what I can pick from the top of my head.
Do I think that a google black ops team is plotting to kick my front door down and put a bag over my head?. No, of course not. But I am very concerned about the implications in relation to my net privacy, my anonymity, that of my friends and colleagues - those who email and contact me via google services, in turn their images, private data and so on; of the effects this whole thing will have on net neutrality and the ability of ISP's to charge tariffs based on varying/individual media usage in years to come, etcetc.
In short, I don't like it, and to opt out is to opt out of a vast share of the goodness that the internet has to offer, so it's a very difficult choice. We're paying for services with small transactions of personal data.
For those posters above who wonder what all of the fuss is about, you should really give it a little more thought; your sensitive data is being harvested and cross-correlated, used for who knows what at the moment, and who knows what in the future..
