Schmidt: Facebook Should Open Up Its Data To Google

[engine]

Schmidt: Facebook Should Open Up Its Data To Google [tech.fortune.cnn.com]

"The best thing that would happen is for Facebook to open up its data," Mr. Schmidt said. "Failing that, there are other ways to get that information." He declined to be specific.

Isn't that an interesting statement!

Time to go and double check the privacy settings in FB

[StoutFiles]

Time to go and double check the privacy settings in FB

Haha, what privacy settings?

[wheel]

Wow. That dropped a gauntlet.

Freakin' Google. Now they don't give a crap whether you want your data indexed or not - they're going to scrape it anyway.

Doesn't matter in the long run. Diaspora is coming, it has potential to wipe facebook off the map and the open source nature means users may have the opportunity to control things again.

[netmeg]

Dammit, I knew at the time that barcode tattoo was a bad idea...

[J_RaD]

Freakin' Google.

yep, that about sums it up.

[albo]

As if to say, if it's online, there's no reason for GOOG not to have a pointer. And, possibly, it doesn't matter: if it weren't GOOG doing it, the technology nonetheless exists, and it would be "someone else".

[UserFriendly]

And people ask me why I don't add myself to Facebook?

Anyone else sometimes feel like Noah at a timeshare sales pitch for waterside apartments?

[Staffa]

Undoubtedly, FB already blocks a number of scrapers, it's just one more to add to their list ;o)

PS : and who the heck does that Schmidt guy thinks he is ?

[Swanny007]

Gee, and I thought facebook didn't care about privacy. Just wait 'til Goofle gets their hands on all that data. Oh wait, they already have <insert evil laugh here>.

Schmidt should just keep his mouth closed. Every time he talks he scares me more about Goofle.

[blend27]

IT seems that with every post about gorg, mo n' mo 'n everywhere else, webmasters are simply starting to say "all rights reserved".

We're trying to take Google's core products and add a social component. If you think about it, it's obvious....

No, you think about it. It is obvious.

[outland88]

Isn't that Eric Schmidt one of the creepiest fellows you ever heard about.

[Reno]

Schmidt should just keep his mouth closed. Every time he talks he scares me more about Goofle.

I'm surprised some major stockholders have not locked him in a room somewhere. The question to me is not whether Google can do it, rather, it's will the masses care? It seems that privacy is becoming an old fashion concept, something we'll tell our grandchildren about.

...........................

[J_RaD]

is anyone ever going to call this guy out on all the outrageous stuff he blabbers out?

[physics]

Dammit, I knew at the time that barcode tattoo was a bad idea...

That's what happens when you stay up all night at PubCon.

[physics]

I'd say as long as Google shares all of it's data with Facebook this would be a fair deal.

Here's Schmidt reaching into the Facebook data trove [image] [indianajones.ugo.com...]

[edited by: physics at 9:14 pm (utc) on Sep 16, 2010]

[Rlilly]

How much information is sent through the Google Toolbar? Time to remove it?

[frontpage]

People need to stop thinking of Google as a search engine and more of Intelligence Agency that hands out Adsense checks.

[ron15]

How much information is sent through the Google Toolbar? Time to remove it?

Every web page you visit is being recorded by Google. It's one click away from being displayed along with the rest of your data. Google knows more about you than does your family.

[sheetah]

why they shouldn't abuse their users' privacy ?

they even sniffed out wi-fi routers with the excuse of Google Maps, now with Android they'll go even further and log your phone calls and SMS.

[sheetah]

android, i repeat, is much more of a treat than facebook.

facebook can fade out in a snap like myspace, but mobile phones have a longer life span and nowadays android is all around and there will be milions of apps for it so lock in users as apple did with the iphone.

[incrediBILL]

Like Facebook data is such a treasure trove of useful information.

I say let Schmidt know just how many times you do something in Farmville if he wants to know that bad! :)

[Reno]

I say let Schmidt know just how many times you do something in Farmville if he wants to know that bad

ES doesn't give a twit what you or me or anyone else does in Farmville. They want that data so they can combine it with other input sources, so they can build the most sophisticated and indepth individual profiles possible, at which point the information wlll be sold to the highest bidders ~ and it won't matter who the bidders are, be it corporate or governmental, as long as the check is good.

EDIT:

After posting the above, I saw this story [ft.com] -- ES knows how the wind is blowing:

Computers set for quantum leap

A new photonic chip that works on light rather than electricity has been built by an international research team, paving the way for the production of ultra-fast quantum computers with capabilities far beyond today’s devices.

Future quantum computers will, for example, be able to pull important information out of the biggest databases almost instantaneously. As the amount of electronic data stored worldwide grows exponentially, the technology will make it easier for people to search with precision for what they want...

[walkman]

"Schmidt: Facebook Should Open Up Its Data To Google" so our engineers can see pictures before stalking teenage girls.
[technolog.msnbc.msn.com...]


He freaked out and retaliated when his own identifiable info found on Google was posted by cNet to prove a point. He even banned cNet reporters for a year or so

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Mr Schmidt, the air is mighty thin up where your ego resides, it's affecting your judgment on humility imo.

It's not facebooks data, it's my personal data, and you can't have it unless I WANT you to... kk?

It's no secret Google has a profile on all of us and desperately wants to add all data sources to it. I wonder if homeland security or the feds are cracking the whip on Schmidt to accumulate more data too.

Perhaps someone should pick up the cnet slack and track Mr Schmidt even more harshly, at least as relentlessly as Google does to all of us (impossible to avoid? almost).

Walkman, from your link:

Google remains under scrutiny by government agencies over data collected and shared via its "Street View" program

I can picture that scrutiny as being a few old dawgs sitting in a room discussing how they will get even more data while at the same time restoring public perception to "google is trustworthy". What's privacy when compared to profit anyway.

[Web_speed]

And people ask me why I don't add myself to Facebook?

Anyone else sometimes feel like Noah at a timeshare sales pitch for waterside apartments?

I know exactly what you are talking about. I don't have a FB page myself yet received a FB email invitation from my brother last week to view some pictures that he posted on his FB page.

On that same FB email invitation i was SHOCKED to see pictures of my mortgage broker, a mate from the army service and my car dealer. Quoting FB, "here are some more friends you may know"....WHAT THE !?!

It was all linked by FB (from probably just my email address)...it raised a lot of privacy concerns nevertheless. I simply didn't like seeing this.

And now Google wants to put their hands on all that private information. God help us all.

[Web_speed]

And people ask me why I don't add myself to Facebook?

And how about friends/family/work colleagues/various businesses you happen to deal with adding you to their profile as a friend (whether you have a FB page or not) without asking for your permission.

People that you know, love and trust may happily hand over your private info when presented with "cute" FB profile forms during their account sign up. FB happily logs your info and you can "unknowingly" have a profile on FB (as well as other social networks) and there is not much that you can do about it really.

It Sucks Big Time!

[graeme_p]

you can "unknowingly" have a profile on FB

I ave never seen such a form on FB. The only thing I can see that I can do that would intrude on other's privacy is tag them in photos.

I use FB but I never assume it is private. If I put stuff on there, rather than on by blog, for example, it is because it is only of interest to my friends.

[anshul]

Google knows more about you than does your family.

Do they sell privacy to governments/employers or to FBI/Interpol or to aliens and other planets?

Any network whether human-beings/social or machines/Internet is unsafe.
May be let them keep the data and information safe; and shouldn't leak it out to anyone. At any cost.

Data and information shouldn't cause negative impact on any of Google's user. That is enough.

[incrediBILL]

People that think anything that they post on the Internet is private, including Facebook, are completely naive.

For starters, anyone you give access to that "private" data can easily make a copy and repost it anonymously. Not to mention the fact that if they're running a Google Toolbar, Google already knows your pages exist and they know who's accessing your content.

Even that little bit of information is information as your private social network has now been exposed so identifying what other sites that private social network accesses can shed clues on what kind of data "might" be found on your private pages.

Scoff if you will, but identifying private social networks has value, such as determining potential terrorist groups, so the tighter you make your so-called privacy (illusion) the more red flags your little group might trigger to be watched.

If you want privacy, stay off the web.

Heck, if you really want privacy, stay in your house and never leave because you're being tracked everywhere you go, everything you do.

Basically, if you're on the internet and refuse to be indexed then it's a signal for the digital McCarthyism (McSchmidtism?) crowd to start sniffing about and FB is a nice big target.

Don't forget, Google does a lot of work for the Feds and even has ex-spooks working for them so anything is withing the realm of possibility.

[Reno]

People that think anything that they post on the Internet is private, including Facebook, are completely naive.

I think almost everyone understands this, at least on a fundamental level, but people who are not as immersed in computers/internet/websites are (generally speaking) simply not as aware of the full implications. The reality now is the ability to deep mine databases and actually make sense of it all. Only the biggest companies can currently do that (read: Google et al), and as I said in my posting above, new technology will make that analysis even faster and more accurate.

So the problem is that we've reached a point where data from many thousands of varying sources can be read, analyzed, and accumulated into specific individual profiles. Those profiles will be updated in virtually real time. Google will have much of this information and will be a broker to sell it to others who are willing to pay. Some here don't care, and that's fine until it's used against you ~ once that happens, the stain is in place and no amount of rubbing will take it away.

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