Scroogled: A tale of google gone to far.

[AgentSimons]

Does anyone here use google products, such as their browser, google +, or google platforms such as a chrome book? Please check this fascinating article regarding internet privacy.

 

To summarize: A man was jailed because his ex girlfriend had a restraining order against him and Google+ sent an automatic email invitation to her from his account without his knowledge or consent. The police were notifed and agreed that the restraining order had been violated.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/google-invitation-sends-man-jail/story?id=21481276

 

What do you all think? Are you concerned about getting scroogled?

[universetwisters]

I use google chrome as my browser.

 

I'm not very concerned. I've got an ad blocker, which is pretty lucky since I don't have to sit through ads. As far as monitoring goes, I'm not doing anything illegal, such as looking up how to make nail bombs or bus routes, so I'm in the clear, unless looking at pictures of trains mysteriously became illegal overnight.

 

But I will agree that google's a dick in some parts, like in that article, the whole "google plus" charade, and messing up youtube. But then again, most of those stem from my own frustrations and inability to accept new things.

[dice]

Heh, 'sending without constent', that's what you get for not reading privacy policies and other (hidden) tick boxes.

 

But yeah, the days of Google being some good force on the internet are long gone, they're a corporation, and like every other corporation, they'll try to do anything to maximize profit. And since their business model encourages stalking, invading privacy and hoarding information about individuals you just need to take extra precautions when dealing with them

[sivispacem]

The term "Scroogled" was invented by the marketing department of Microsoft. This, if anything, is a reason not to use it.

[AgentSimons]

I learned the term here on GTA Forums. The right side of the page constantly advises me to not get scroogled by buying a chromebook. I didn't realize the term was so loathed around here since the site itself uses it.

 

If you'd prefer, just forget that I ever used that term and comment on the article and general implications of it instead. I think there is still a valid topic for discussion here.