Archive for February, 2009

Few days ago I read the news of changed Facebook Terms of service which states that Facebook owns all your content which you upload, forever. Now, many people were concerned & made noise for privacy breach by Facebook due to which Facebook had to revert back to there old Terms of Service. However, it got me thinking….Are you really secure online? Is there anything left called “Online Privacy”?

I live two lives. First is my Real life which I find better. It is the real me, my real friend, family etc…those person I know & have met in real..in person or at least talked over on phone etc etc. Second is my Reel Life which constitutes of Orkut, Facebook, this blog, Digit Forum, MSDN, Technet, CGSociety, etc etc. Due to the increased penetration of Internet in my life both the lives are somewhat connected but still there are many things I like not to disclose. I am not on Twitter cos I don’t find it any use to me. I don’t want the world to know what I am doing at any given time, if I want someone to know, I will tell them..but do I even need to say anything?

There are 3 major Cloud Computing Service providers out there. Microsoft, Google & Yahoo!. People crib about Microsoft Windows & there services saying Microsoft has Draconian DRM in Windows etc etc, but they don’t say anything to Google or Yahoo much. There are indeed concerns about Google’s penetration in our life but overall I find it much hyped.

The moment you connect to the Internet, you are no longer private. If you want to be then don’t make an E-Mail ID. Google knows everything about you, so does Microsoft.

If you make your Google ID  & login then Google gets to know all about it.

1. Google knows your real name.

2. Google knows what you are searching on the Internet if you are using Google Search.

3. Google knows what kind of mails you get & who mails you when you use GMail.

4. Google knows your address book & all contacts. It even knows what contacts you have on your mobile phone when you use Google Sync. It even knows your real address if you put it.

5. Google knows who are your friends, who are there friends, what communities they have added, what they like & don’t like, what you are talking about, what you think about some friend of yours…etc etc when you use Orkut.

6. Google knows what pictures you have taken when you upload them to Picasa Web Album. It knows who watches your picture album, where you have taken via Geolocation, Which digital camera you have using EXIF data,

7. Google knows what you write when you use Blogger. It knows who reads your posts & who comments.

8. Google knows your birthday, your friend’s birthday, what you are buying for them on there birthday when you use Google Calendar.

9. Google knows what you will be doing today, tomorrow when you use To Do list feature of Google Calendar or Google Alerts.

10. Google knows what kind of news you like to read when you use Google Reader

11. Google knows what websites you visit when you use Google Chrome.

12. Google knows what kind of videos you like to watch, what videos you have made when you use Youtube.

13. Google knows what Spreadsheet you are making or What report are you creating when you use Google Docs.

14. Google knows what other language stuff you are reading when you use Google Translate.

15. Google knows what books you read when you use Google Books service.

16. Google Knows what you have on your desktop when you use Google Desktop search (doesn’t send it online though……or does it?)

17. Google knows what you chat with your friends when you use Google talk which logs to GMail archive.

18. Google Knows where you are going at any given time when you use Google Maps.

19. Google knows where you are when you use Google Latitude.

20. It knows what you were doing using Google Street view.

21. Google knows about your phone when you use an Android based Mobile phone.

Isn’t this wonderful that you want to remain anonymous but Google knows all about you already? A Googlified Life, isn’t it. Lets talk about Microsoft now…

1. Microsoft knows what hardware you are using when you activate Windows.

2. Microsoft knows what you mail, who you mail & who you contact when you use Windows Live Mail

3. Microsoft knows who your friends are when you use Windows Live Messenger.

4. It knows what you write or talk about when you use Windows Live Spaces

5. It knows what are you looking for when you use Windows Live Search.

6. It knows what music you are listening to when you use Zune.

7. It knows where you are planning to go when you use Windows Live Maps

8. It knows what videos you watch & upload when you use Soapbox.

9. It knows what files to share or upload when you use Windows Live Skydrive.

Well…it knows lots more about you…the post is not enough to write all this.

All it takes is someone to break or know your password & they get to know all about you. Even your deepest darkest side. But then I ask you, why are you concerned about your privacy? What is it that you are trying to hide anyway? Privacy means nothing when you are online so stop being concerned about it & start to use the services anyway. If it is privacy you want…then stop using Internet.