Comments on: Bigger than Beacon: Politician presses Google on privacy issues

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By: Pran Kurup

Pran Kurup — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:44:42 +0000

Eric, the problem is that targeted ads might be ok for you but not so for others. What if the information got into the wrong hands?

With regards to John’s point about anyone being able to disable cookies, block scripts etc. the reality is that as the web becomes more mainstream, most people don’t know how to do this and are simply unaware of the consequences of their moves online.

Also, I think it is ok for politicians to ask these questions, because it leads to legitimate public discourse and spreads awareness on the issue.

By: John

John — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:05:44 +0000

We shouldn’t pay politicians that bother with nonsense like this. How long have advertising companies been using cookies to track web consumers? What a waste of tax payers’ money. Anyone can disable cookies, block scripts or simply not go on the web. According to some politicians we need government intervention everywhere.

By: Eric Eldon

Eric Eldon — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:57:50 +0000

Pran, I agree.

To be honest, I have given up on keeping my online activity private. I mean, my internet service provider could track every web site I visit if it wanted to (in fact, it may be doing that as I write this — I have no way to tell).

With that assumption, why not let these companies use the data they already have about me to serve me ads that I may be more likely to pay attention to?

I’m not saying I want all of this to be reality, I’m just saying it is reality.

By: Pran Kurup

Pran Kurup — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:08:12 +0000

I guess Facebook got ahead of the line and paid the price with beacon. Ideally, all the leading sites in this space in addition to Google and Facebook do raise privacy concerns. While it is easy for politicians to raise privacy issues, the reality is that there has to be a way for these incredibly innovative companies to continue to make money as well as address privacy concerns at the same time. At present I don’t think anyone has the answer to these challenges. In fact, the ground rules haven’t been defined because all this is so new.