So Google has joined Facebook's party. As of yesterday, if you click on Google's +1 feature in Google+ for any company post or page, you are basically allowing said company to use that click as an endorsement from you to any of your friends. According to Online Media Daily, "the newly updated Google Terms of Service says names and photos shown in shared endorsements are the public profile name and photo the person chooses to use on Google+ and in recommendations."
Facebook got into trouble for doing the same thing with its "likes" and had to deal with a $20 million lawsuit where users claimed that they were no longer in control of their data. This seems to be the same case now with Google, however they made sure to add a little check box which you can unclick in order to not endorse the link. When you do this, you get a message saying "when you disable this setting, your friends will be less likely to benefit from your recommendations."
So, unsurprisingly, it seems that with the advent of social media companies like Google and Facebook are intelligently using the information that users post publicly in order to make a profit with their advertisers. Personally I don't see this as surprising or shocking, or even wrong; it just seems like the internet is evolving into a much more controlled and operated medium.
No comments:
Post a Comment