Google Becomes Ad Monster

[+ Lucky]

Usually I use Google Chrome in the morning as it lets me put all of my top sites in the tool bar (Firefox is not as easy). But google has also added so much advertising, even putting ads on You Tube videos, that it reminds me of the times when pop-up ads were everywhere. Apparently pop-up blockers are blocked by Google now.

Today I was at the NY Daily News website as usual, but could not read the articles I clicked on. The words were grayed over until I answered some survey questions or shared with my friends on Facebook- another obnoxious web monster. I switched to Firefox and could read the Daily News without any grey lines covering the stories.

 

Recently I communicated with a niece by Gmail about fertility issues. Now I am getting ads for fertility doctors! I am planning to switch my email to me.com, unless you tell me it is just as bad. And the Chrome browser is going to turn rusty as I plan to give up on it.

[gallahadesquire]

Google as much as said: If you sign on any of our applications / browsers, including chrome, gmail, youtube, and lord only know what - we're going to keep track of what you're doing. AND keep a copy of every gmail you've ever sent.

 

Apparently, they also read your gmail. Maybe George Orwell was right. Big brother is here.

 

I never sign on anything if I don't have to, and I never use a Facebook application.

[maxwellissmart]

Usually I use Google Chrome in the morning as it lets me put all of my top sites in the tool bar (Firefox is not as easy). But google has also added so much advertising, even putting ads on You Tube videos, that it reminds me of the times when pop-up ads were everywhere. Apparently pop-up blockers are blocked by Google now.

Today I was at the NY Daily News website as usual, but could not read the articles I clicked on. The words were grayed over until I answered some survey questions or shared with my friends on Facebook- another obnoxious web monster. I switched to Firefox and could read the Daily News without any grey lines covering the stories.

 

Recently I communicated with a niece by Gmail about fertility issues. Now I am getting ads for fertility doctors! I am planning to switch my email to me.com, unless you tell me it is just as bad. And the Chrome browser is going to turn rusty as I plan to give up on it.

 

I use Chrome (in fact, I switched to it after Firefox repeatedly crashed on my computer) and it doesn't do this at all. I use Ad Block and Flash Block on mine.

[+ deej]

I'm happy to read that I'm not the only one avoiding Facebook. For a moment I thought I was the only one. The fact that Google keeps copies of every gmail that's being sent also means that if I don't have a gmail account, but if I send an email to someone with a gmail account, that gmail will be copied by Google as well.

 

Clients who want discretion better not use a gmail account.

 

Said more accurately, clients who want discretion should not use email. ALL email providers will keep copies of incoming/outgoing email, whether they admit it or not. They must be able to respond to legal subpoena.

 

I cancelled my Facebook account a year ago because it's a colossal waste of time.

[instudiocity]

I'm happy to read that I'm not the only one avoiding Facebook. For a moment I thought I was the only one. The fact that Google keeps copies of every gmail that's being sent also means that if I don't have a gmail account, but if I send an email to someone with a gmail account, that gmail will be copied by Google as well.

 

Clients who want discretion better not use a gmail account.

 

Sincerely, Anton.

 

Long before the March 1st change in TOS, Google regularly dropped porn emails not marked as SPAM into my 'for escort purposes only' email account. Funny, none of that stuff showed up in my other Gmail account. Nor was it pertinent to guys doing guys, either.

 

I think if you re-read the Terms of Service, Google's not READING your emails so much as scoring your emails based on word content. The programming sees the occurrence of a word, matches it to a key word linked to an ad and then drops the ad on you when you're logged in. So far as knowing about your appointment with a certain well-known escort, I doubt it, unless law enforcement subpoena's their records. Then your info is OUT there.

[Diverdan]

I don't use GOOGLE for anything if I can help it, and although I ended up on Facebook because of a college reunion, I seldom use it. It would help if folks would start cancelling their google accounts and let advertisers on google that they will no longer support them. If this continues very long, I suspect we may be able to get some federal laws on privacy that will get enforced, although law enforcement loves to be able to subpoena records where ever they can find them.

DD

[instudiocity]

I don't use GOOGLE for anything if I can help it, and although I ended up on Facebook because of a college reunion, I seldom use it. It would help if folks would start cancelling their google accounts and let advertisers on google that they will no longer support them. If this continues very long, I suspect we may be able to get some federal laws on privacy that will get enforced, although law enforcement loves to be able to subpoena records where ever they can find them.

DD

That ... if I can help it, ... is a good qualifier because we just don't know everything a mega-web company, like Google, is involved in. As to law enforcement, did you see what happened yesterday? Federal Court rules that cell phones may be searched without a warrant?

 

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/03/06/police-given-direct-line-to-cell-phone-searches/

 

And a couple of years ago, cell phones a federal court ruled cell phone locations can be tracked without a warrant.

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20015743-281.html

 

Good ol' Uncle Sam...

[rvwnsd]

Once again, there is a price for everything. Sometimes it is monetary, and other times it is an onerous Terms of Service.

 

PS: I am using Chrome and receive fewer ads than I did when I used Firefox or IE.

[+ Charlie]

I have never used Facebook, and probably never will.