[Air-L] Privacy Buzz

[Sharon Haleva Amir]

Here in Israel a class action was submitted yesterday to Jerusalem's
district court. The motion claims that Buzz privacy policy violates privacy
and more specifically - this policy violates two state laws - privacy
protection law and consumer protection law. It would be very interesting to
follow this case. Have a great day.
 

Best Wishes,
Sharon Haleva Amir, HCLT Fellow 
(PhD Candidate) Faculty of Law, 
University of Haifa, ISRAEL. 
--------------------------------------------------

http://weblaw.haifa.ac.il/en/research/resstudents/pages/sharonha.aspx

-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Charles Ess
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 7:58 AM
To: Christian Fuchs; Andrejevic, Mark
Cc: Air list
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Privacy Buzz

Thanks for this -
In my writing and lectures I try to counter this sort of blithe dismissal of
privacy concerns (going back at least to Scott McNealy's famous "You have no
privacy, get over it" (1999)) by highlighting the connection in Western
liberal political philosophy between individual freedoms - including the
freedom to choose the goals and ends defining one's own good life - and the
right to privacy as it becomes articulated especially over the last hundred
years or so.  
I'm doing this right now as part of a masters class here in Aarhus - I'll be
eager to see what the students make of the arguments and claims involved.

At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly: I worry that we largely seem happy to
trade off individual privacy for the multiple conveniences we gain in doing
so - a trade that is all that much easier as we forget and/or simply no
longer care about why such privacy is central to liberal democracies. We
fall in love with the technologies of our enslavement.

I would be very happy for someone to prove me wrong...

again, thanks!
- charles


On 2/16/10 3:06 AM, "Christian Fuchs" <christian.fuchs at sbg.ac.at> wrote:

> Hi Mark,
> 
> I think we agree that economic surveillance is a huge phenomenon on the
> Internet today and that Google is one of the main players in this
> respect. We both focus on these topics in our research. Much important
> work has been done on these issues, including your own works, but more
> research of many related issues is still needed.
> 
> Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently remarked about Internet privacy: "If
> you have something that you do not want anyone to know, maybe you should
> not be doing it in the first place², which points towards a lack of
> understanding of the online surveillance threat and privacy issues.
> 
> I have commented here in more detail on privacy and surveillance issues
> of Google Buzz in a blog entry: http://fuchs.uti.at/313/
> 
> Best, Christian
> 
> 
> 
> Andrejevic, Mark schrieb:
>> Thanks for these observations: the Buzz story is one more example of what
we
>> might expect to happen (as Christian points out), when, in the name of
>> convenience, access, lack of better alternatives, etc., we develop and
>> conduct significant portions of our communicative and transactional lives
>> (whether social, professional, or educational -- think of the
>> Google/Microsoft battle over who will take over university email
accounts) on
>> commercially supported platforms whose business model is based on data
>> collection and processing.
>> 
>> I wonder if Google's "clumsiness" in rolling out something like this lies
in
>> the way it thinks about information, which has much to do with finding
>> applications for making sense out of (and putting to use) large amounts
of
>> data. Our contact lists, viewed in this light, are just one more data set
>> that can be multi-purposed, for them and for us. From such a perspective,
it
>> might seem like such a waste not to put that information to "good use."
It's
>> a perspective that is perhaps implicit in the media charges of
"clumsiness"
>> (that Google just didn't handle this right, that they're too willing to
>> release applications in beta form, not fully tested, etc.), which seems
to
>> assume, that yes, all of this info is useful for multi-purposing, if it's
>> just done right.
>> 
>> I suspect that this is just the beginning of an ongoing series of
revelations
>> regarding what it means to rely on privatized, data-driven, commercially
>> supported platforms for an increasing range of our communication and
>> information-related activities. It's really an unprecedented level of
>> commercialization and privatization. Against the background of Google
taking
>> over university email (and perhaps, eventually secondary school email
>> accounts, document storage, and so on) previous concerns about commercial
>> organizations in the schools (Channel One, in the US for example) seem
almost
>> quaint. The "value proposition" is clear: commercial companies will
provide
>> us with a range of communication and information services in exchange for
>> detailed data collection about these various aspects of our lives -- data
>> that can be used in non-transparent ways to sort, manipulate and manage
>> users. It's not the kind of choice we might make in theory, when laid out
in
>> stark terms, but it does s
> ee
>>  m to be the kind of choice we're willing to make in practice, perhaps
out of
>> a lack of better alternatives to address the social and economic pressure
to
>> network, respond, stay in contact, etc.
>> 
>> I think Christian makes a very interesting point about the focus on
potential
>> ~abuses~ of Buzz data by "other" authoritarian regimes, a focus that
>> implicitly sanctions the "proper" commercial use of personal information
and
>> backgrounds the state's use of private sector data by, say, the United
>> States. At the same time, the line between government use and corporate
use
>> continues to be reconfigured and blurred. The "investment arm" of the CIA
>> puts money into data-mining companies, which in turn purchase data from
an
>> increasingly entrepreneurial state for commercial use, and so on.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________________
>> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org]
On
>> Behalf Of Richard Forno [rforno at infowarrior.org]
>> Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 7:38 PM
>> To: Christian Fuchs
>> Cc: List Aoir
>> Subject: [Air-L] offlist - Re:  Privacy Buzz
>> 
>> I agree .... again, while I don't use Gmail or Facebook, etc......I am
more
>> concerned with the personal privacy "violation" to/for friends than I am
>> anything having to to with a state government.  Why?  Because i presume
that
>> anything I do/say in cyberspace, or has the possibility to transit
through or
>> exist on a server/service that I don't have positive control over,
>> potentially can be intercepted or compromised for any number of
legitimate or
>> nefarious purposes.  That reality is not something one should fear only
in
>> totalitarian societiies, by the way.
>> 
>> That said, to me, the more sinister "motive" is what Christian talks
about:
>> economic exploitation -- but I certainly acknowledge and appreciate those
>> with political concerns here as well.    It's also one of the reasons
I've
>> been slow to embrace things like Facebook (I don't) and only recently
began
>> dabbling with Twitter and LinkedIn.   Put bluntly, I just don't like the
idea
>> of a for-profit entity knowing my social network, which can be used for
>> marketing or other purposes that I may not appreciate or agree with.
Am I
>> paranoid?  Perhaps.  But I am under no obligation to use these services,
so
>> if I chose 'not to play' it's no big deal for me .... even though many of
my
>> friends would love it if I joined them on Facebook.   ;)
>> 
>> -rf
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 13, 2010, at 7:59 PM, Christian Fuchs wrote:
>> 
>>> I think Buzz is an interesting new phenomenon.
>>> 
>>> I find interesting about the NY Times article and the reactions of some
>>> users to Buzz that they primarily stress the danger that China, Iran,
etc
>>> could use Buzz for engaging in the (political) surveillance of political
>>> oppositionists and that they label such endeavaours totalitarian, while
at
>>> the same time they do not provide a critique of the economic
surveillance
>>> machine constituted by Google's expanding services, its collection,
storage,
>>> analysis, and commodification of personal data, and its market
dominance.
>>> 
>>> Surveillance and Big brother are not only somewhere out there in China
or
>>> Iran, they are also present in the heart of capitalism itself - in the
form
>>> of economic surveillance, and Google is one of its primary executors.
>>> 
>>> Buzz privacy policy for example says:
>>> "When you use Google Buzz, we may record information about your use of
the
>>> product, such as the posts that you like or comment on and the other
users
>>> who you communicate with. This is to provide you with a better
experience on
>>> Buzz and other Google services and to improve the quality of Google
>>> services"
>>> "If you use Google Buzz on a mobile device and choose to view "nearby"
>>> posts, your location will be collected by Google."
>>> 
>>> The task is to collect as many data about users and to then to sell this
>>> data as commodity to advertising clients. Google fears the competition
by
>>> Facebook and Twitter in the social networking market, and so has set up
its
>>> own service (although I doubt that I will be so successful because until
now
>>> it only supports rather trivial functions).
>>> 
>>> To only focus on the political surveillance capabilities that Buzz
provides
>>> for some non-Western societies and to ignore the immanence of economic
>>> surveillance, is a form od Digital Orientalism that is ideologically
blind
>>> for the forms of stratification that are at the heart of Western
economies.
>>> 
>>> Cheers, Christian
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Feb 13, 2010, at 11:33 AM, Aziz Douai wrote:
>>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I guess I am one of the lurkers on the listserv, but here goes my
first
>>>>> contribution: Buzz. If you have used the new google social network
>>>>> service,
>>>>> how do you feel about the seeming violation of privacy? A few days
ago, I
>>>>> decline my Gmail's insistence on adding trying the new
feature/service.
>>>>> Now,
>>>>> the New York Times has a great article (Critics Say Google Invades
Privacy
>>>>> with New Service:
>>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/technology/internet/13google.html)
on
>>>>> how
>>>>> users' rights to privacy appear to have been violated. The article
raises
>>>>> the interesting question of how totalitarian regimes may use the
service
>>>>> to
>>>>> suppress political dissent. Google's rhetoric and carefully
constructed
>>>>> image following its row with China is put to test.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Anyway, I am curious as to how AIR members have found the feature with
>>>>> regard to both privacy and security.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Aziz
>>>>> 
>>>>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>> Aziz Douai, Ph.D.
>>>>> Assistant Professor, Communication Program
>>>>> Faculty of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies
>>>>> University of Ontario Institute of Technology
>>>>> 2000 Simcoe Street North
>>>>> Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4
>>>>> E-mail: aziz.douai at uoit.ca/ azizdouai at gmail.com
>>>>> 
>>>>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> -----------------------------------
>>>>> 
>>>>> "A popular government without popular information, or the means of
>>>>> acquiring
>>>>> it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both."
James
>>>>> Madison, 1822
>>>>> 
>>>>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> -------------------------------------
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>>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> 
>>> --
>>> - - -
>>> Priv.-Doz. Dr. Christian Fuchs
>>> Associate Professor
>>> Unified Theory of Information Research Group
>>> ICT&S Center
>>> University of Salzburg
>>> Sigmund Haffner Gasse 18
>>> 5020 Salzburg
>>> Austria
>>> christian.fuchs at sbg.ac.at
>>> Phone +43 662 8044 4823
>>> Personal Website: http://fuchs.uti.at
>>> Research Group: http;//www.uti.at
>>> Editor of
>>> tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-Operation | Open Access Journal
for a
>>> Global Sustainable Information Society
>>> http://www.triple-c.at
>>> Fuchs, Christian. 2008. Internet and Society: Social Theory in the
>>> Information Age. New York: Routledge.
>>> http://fuchs.uti.at/?page_id=40
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> http://www.aoir.org/
>>> 
>> 
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> 


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