Monday, December 23, 2013

And we thought the government snooped…


Recently I read that Facebook tracks what I don’t post. I don’t post on Facebook, except to cheer on my nephew’s quit smoking endeavor. But, if I would write “Tommy, you little addict, you’ll never beat it. ", reconsider, and don’t hit enter, the big processors at Facebook remember I wrote it. If I would start over in another box, “Tommy, you…” Facebook will fill in the box with everything I already wrote. Just being helpful.

What does Facebook do with all the posts we've thought better of and never entered? Keep them safe, like Target? We all know what happened to millions of their transactions recently.

Google+ is completely incomprehensible. Google already knows everything about me; it can prefill my queries faster than I can type. Google knows me because Blogger belongs to Google and you can’t have one without the other.  I have a Google email address I do not use. My phone knows it, and uses it to email phone pictures to my real computer.

I get emails that my son-in-law shared with me on Google+. I have no idea. I do like him, but I won’t open the emails. He has my phone number and my email; we can talk.

Google+ sent me a message recently, with a picture I used here on my blog:



A moment from this week ready to share on Google+

It also informed me the AutoBackup on my phone automatically saves my photos to Google+.  But I took that picture with my autonomous Nikon and it is nowhere except on my hard drive and on Blogger.  Does Blogger automatically save to Google+?

I also read recently that every smart phone picture is stamped with the date and GPS coordinates. That is over the top.

Everything we do, and apparently do not, post out there, is available. I have locked down my grandchildren’s internet access; the most they can look at are Donald Duck cartoons, unless I type in the magic code, behind their back. I also get a spiffy weekly report of what they looked at and tried to look at.


That should work in reverse, too, but probably never will. My project for the afternoon is to learn how Blogger saves to Google+. I also must end my phone automatically saving my photos to Google+. It’s in the fine print somewhere; I’ll find it.

33 comments:

  1. We are everywhere it seems.....kind of scary.

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  2. I've been getting that "Google Photo" for about 2 weeks now... have no idea why or how or anything. I know we all are being watched but jeez! And the worst thing is that the darned thing has a much better memory than me!

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  3. One of my friends recently posted a quip on facebook that the government was now looking for a way to get all of its citizens' fingerprints. Apple called them back and said they had it covered (with the new iPhone 5 which scans your fingerprint in lieu of a password, if you desire)!

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  4. Yes I know - it's a bit chilling

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  5. I don't have a smartphone....just as well.

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  6. I'm not smart enough for a smart phone, I just don't have one or any mobile phone.
    Merle.............

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  7. And will you share your knowledge with those of us without time to dig through the bowels of the Internet?

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  8. Hari OM
    Ahhhhh... I noted this last week that when I posted certain photos to the blogs, I get a notification on G+ saying things along the lines of "sparkling shot just uploaded"... is this the beginning? It does not happen with every upload...but... It boils down to enough folk in the world have said they like certain features and the rest of us are forced to tag a long. I don't mind all that much; at least Google still (at the moment as far as I can tell) keeps to your copyright, unlike FB, Pint-and-the-rest... They are however offering personalised URLs and you can betcya that somewhere along the line will be expected to exchange etherstops!!!

    Meanwhile, It's Christmas...YAYYYAYYAYAYAY.. Hugs, YAM xx

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    Replies
    1. ...MONEY... money will be expected to ...blah blah blah

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    2. I'm not that concerned about google or the NSA...I don't do anything interesting and they will soon gat tired of my photos. My grandchildren are adorable, but I think google will tire of them!

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  9. I don't have a Facebook account, don't think I want one either.

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  10. I have a gmail account. I opened it last year when my son got rid of his iPhone so we could still message on my iPad instead of texting on my notsmart phone. then it turned out we still couldn't. then blogger started signing me in with my gmail email instead of the one I signed up with so I still have it because I am afraid if I delete it now something bad might happen to my blog. I have never used it, never even gone to the inbox. it may have a million notifications in it for all I know. and anytime I can, I always turn the GPS locator function off whatever device I have.

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  11. You should just accept this stuff if you want to use it - Not my policy, but theirs.

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  12. Isn't all this creepy? It gets me that I will be browsing online looking for some obscure thing like boots with fur lining and all of a sudden, EVERY stinking time I get online, there are ads all over the place for boots with fur lining. Big brother is watching...

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  13. Good luck in trying to figure it all out (you will need luck)!

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  14. I still don't have a smart phone or an IPhone. Our contract expires in November 2014 so until then I am on my own with my computer. My blogs don't have too many pictures for that reason.

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  15. I'm starting to get increasingly uneasy about Google, too. What they know about us is a little unnerving.

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  16. I can help you too stop Google from snooping, I only need your birth date, SS#, address and bank account numbers.

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  17. I don't know if I'm more irritated or more worried about these things.

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  18. I always have said to people when they posted a lot of personal things on their blogs to be careful because we have no idea who is reading this stuff of ours. It is scary how they can track these though, isn't it? I know if I do a Google search on a particular thing, on another site I frequent I'll see ads about what that search was about. My husband hates Google for how they take our info and uses it. I mainly do FB for games, rarely do updates any more. I do think we need to be very careful out here on social media or even on the Internet in general. Do let us know what you discover as you do your investigation.

    betty

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  19. Gee, I had no idea that was going on. Thanks for the info.

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  20. It's really scary actually. I've noticed the same thing. I also did something dumb. I agreed to some security thing with Wordpress... some double security authenticating code thing. Now I can't comment on a Wordpress blog unless I go to my iPhone and get a special code. Aggravating! I don't know what I'm doing. Technology is making me crazy.

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  21. It's scary...and very annoying too. I too will shut off my automatic photo backup.

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  22. We worry about the government and corporations collecting information about us, but we also have to realize that many times we willing give it to them. Every time we use a customer card at a store to get small amounts of money back or coupons, they are collecting data about what we eat and the state of our health. I don't use those nor did I join Google+. There is no way to stop this big brother overlook, but, like you, I am concerned and am cautious about where and to what I tell anything about me. However, I do blab on and on on Blogger.

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  23. It would be interesting to try searching the internet and go "window shopping" on the net for things one doesn't want just to see if and when ads aimed at you for related products popped up on pages you regularly use.

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  24. A few excellent reasons there to stay away from Facebook, (I will never join Facebook), and never have a smart phone. I imagine twitter might be similar. I tried Google+ once and switched back to plain Google almost immediately.
    Merry Christmas to all your family.

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  25. omg, big brother is watching us and lots of others as well heaven help us if the world ever looses all its computers or maybe that will be the heavens helping us, happy holidays to you and yours

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  26. It is scary. But no matter what have a Merry Christmas:}

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  27. I didn't read all the comments so if someone answered your blogger post picture already, you'll already know this. Yes when you upload a picture to post on blogger the picture is saved in the G+ photo. Before G+ is was saved in your picasa account but that account became G+. The good news with the change was the memory limit on the album was increased.

    Yes the companies are all watching and tracking. It is used for ads which pays for the free service. As you know - there is no free lunch.

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  28. Your good intentions words seem to suggest that you are a domineering old wizen ???

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