Google's new policies go into effect today and many have the "willies." A news report via Consumer Watchdog.
The Los Angeles Times also carries an article on How to cope with Google's new privacy policy, including the following:
1. Don't log in to a Google account when you go online. Google's privacy changes mostly affect people who have a Google account such as Gmail or Google+. But even if you do have a Google account, you can still use plenty of Google's services, including YouTube, Search and Maps, without logging in first. The company may still show you targeted ads based on search terms, but at least that wart cream you just bought on CVS.com won't be linked to you forever.
2. Use another search engine. If you don't like the fact that Google is keeping tabs on what you are looking for, you can always try another search engine when scouring the Internet for stories on Angelina Jolie and her leg. Even better, you can rotate among a number of search engines so that no one company has a complete picture of what (or who) you like to look for online.
3. Turn off the setting that allows Google to record your search history. Google has made it very simple to pause, edit or remove your search history via http://www.google.com/history. If you clear your search history, your search terms no longer will be associated with your account but still may be associated with your browser for up to 18 months, according to a Google spokeswoman.
4. Take your Google data and head for the hills. In the spirit of "being big without being evil," Google created the Data Liberation Front, a website that teaches people how to export data from some key Google platforms like Google Docs and Gmail so you can quit Google without leaving all your treasured documents and emails behind.
You can find it by, well, googling Data Liberation Front.
I did, and found the group's website here along with the following youtube:
Facebook and Twitter
In related news concerning internet privacy rights, Bob Sullivan at MSN reports that some colleges and employers are demanding full access to applicants' Facebook and Twitter accounts.
All this scrutiny is too much for Bradley Shear, a Washington D.C.-lawyer who says both schools and employers are violating the First Amendment with demands for access to otherwise private social media content.
"I can't believe some people think it's OK to do this,” he said. “Maybe it's OK if you live in a totalitarian regime, but we still have a Constitution to protect us. It's not a far leap from reading people's Facebook posts to reading their email. ... As a society, where are we going to draw the line?"
Aside from the free speech concerns, Shear also thinks colleges take on unnecessary liability when they aggressively monitor student posts.
"What if the University of Virginia had been monitoring accounts in the Yeardley Love case and missed signals that something was going to happen?” he said, referring to a notorious campus murder. “What about the liability the school might have?"
Shear has gotten the attention of Maryland state legislators, who have proposed two separate bills aimed at banning social media access by schools and potential employers. The ACLU is aggressively supporting the bills.
[...]
And the state of Illinois has followed Maryland's lead and is considering similar legislation to ban social media password demands by employers.
But Shear says a patchwork of state laws isn't good enough when the stakes are this high.
"We need a federal law dealing with this," he said. "After 9/11, we have a culture where some people think it's OK for the government to be this involved in our lives, that it's OK to turn everything over to the government. But it's not. We still have privacy rights in this country, and we still have a Constitution."
As long as we stand up for it, right? Otherwise, how can I shred thee, stain thee, violate thee, so on .. let me count the ways ..
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