Google CEO Eric Schmidt says privacy isn't important, and if you want to keep something private, "maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" (in other words, "innocent people have nothing to hide.")

So I shouldn't take showers anymore?
No more sex?


Man, I hate that type of thinking!
Someone tell this idiot that nobody likes a nosy neighbour

Business is pushing hard to erase anonymity. The biggest challenge of marketing online is that you never really know who your potential customers and prospects are. You can target them using behavioral segments but unlike traditional marketing, they're largely unknown. To be able to identify us on the web and connect us to all the real-world behavioral and demographic data available would be a winfall for business. You can be sure they are pushing uber-hard for this.

Awesome. One of the richest men in the world is lobbying the government for something that would benefit his monopolies business model. I think we all know how that usually ends up.

In this case it happens to be one of the last bastions of free speech we have left. Fantastic.

I hope the govt doesn't rape the first amendment for this nutjob.

LMAO @ no anonymity
Google must have lost their minds!!!!

I think google needs to remember that we built the internet;
Google is just a leech, a simple search engine, nothing more;

I hope Google starts charging people money to use Youtube, So we could create another video site and upload our content to there instead....

The only reason google is the top site is because everyone has their homepage set as google;
so every time we open our browsers google pops up;
Its not like google controls the internet;

We have Bing from Microsoft who arent actually power hungry like verizon and google,
Theres also Yahoo and countless other search engines

If Google doesnt get off their high horse and stop acting pompous and treating their users like inferiors then we WILL find another search engine provider....

[edit on 10-8-2010 by SupremeKnowledge]

Mr. Schmidt will probably end up wishing he'd expressed this sentiment anonymously.

It is true that the internet has been slowly slipping more and more into government control and more and more away from privacy and anonymity. Anonymity is the ultimate form of privacy and it's funny he tries to separate the two, this forum is a good example. Would people post some of their views and have decent open debates if they were not anonymous?

I know i've authored several threads about issues i think are important but i wouldn't even discuss them with friends. Not because i am ashamed of the beliefs but because it is very easy for people to read into what you say and come away with incorrect conclusions. Especially when the subject matter is prone to emotional reactions rather than logical debate.

Anonymity is important, while it's dangerous and can be misused that is the same with anything in this world.

If they try and introduce this system of a static ID then numerous people will try to circumvent it, not because they are criminals or bad people but because they believe freedom is sometimes dependant on anonymity.

[edit on 10-8-2010 by ImaginaryReality1984]

While I don't agree with statements like this one....

Google CEO Eric Schmidt says privacy isn't important, and if you want to keep something private, "maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" (in other words, "innocent people have nothing to hide.")

I also don't think anonymity and privacy are the same thing. And I hope that line can be drawn between the 2. Like I've said in another thread, you wouldn't be allowed to walk into a bank with a ski mask on to "protect your privacy", and you shouldn't be allowed to do the same on the net.

You guys know what non-anonymity will cause in the real world?
Yes, Child Molesters preying on innocent children who are using the internet.....
There is also ID Theft, Credit Fraud, Blackmail, Extortion, Robberies, Murder!!!

Schmidt has lost his mind and needs to be FIRED asap!!!

If you guys own stock in Google; then you better start selling because the CEO has LOST HIS MIND!!!!!!

I learned in the book "Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich" If you try to take without giving you will fail; and that is what Google's CEO is doing



[edit on 10-8-2010 by SupremeKnowledge]

The one who controls tptb has always suffered from the delusion of wanting to be like God. Like God, he wants to know as many details as possible about every individual on the planet but unlike God he is innately unable. So he has to use his suckered minions (tptb) to set up a hi-tech tracking grid to obtain as much detail as possible about every person on the planet to give himself a small semblance of Godlike capabilities. What a pathetic loser.

Originally posted by EFGuy

Google CEO Eric Schmidt says privacy isn't important, and if you want to keep something private, "maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" (in other words, "innocent people have nothing to hide.")

That is just a tiny bit of context from what the CEO of Google said during the CNBC documentary "Inside the Mind of Google." If you watch the whole video the question and his entire answer are;

(Question) "People are treating Google like their most trusted friend. Should they be?"

(Schmidt's Answer) "I think judgment matters. If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place, but if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time, and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act. It is possible that that information could be made available to the authorities."

Also, when answering a question about how powerful Google is with its vast amount of information on a lot of people, Schmidt said, "Protecting user privacy is Google's top priority... We don't use it and we don't misuse it. We could misuse it, but if we did, we would quickly become much less powerful because everyone would flee to our competitors… If we broke our trust with our end users, then they would leave and we wouldn't be very important anymore."

[edit on 10-8-2010 by tooo many pills]

Between Ma Bell, Google, and Microsoft, anyone who thinks they have anonymity on the Web is just naive.

Even Tor has been shown to be compromised.

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
Between Ma Bell, Google, and Microsoft, anyone who thinks they have anonymity on the Web is just naive.

Even Tor has been shown to be compromised.

TOR has been compromised in a few ways however it's better than just surfing without any protection, there are other methods open to making people anonymous online. If anonymity didn't exist then every black hat hacker out there would be in prison right now and the large scale operations against them wouldn't be needed as tracing them would be easy.

Anyone who thinks anonymity on the web isn't possible is just naive

I just have to ask everyone, why do you think MS came up with Windows Cardspace.

Soon you will have to purchase a LICENSE to have access to the internet.

Ask yourself, what use to be free?

They will probably set up a Internet Drivers Licensing bureau. You will have to stand in line for hours, have some 70ish IQ level government pensioned moron test you on PROPER internet etiquette.

They will have internet police giving you tickets for talking back against your overlords. etc etc etc.

I am NOT kidding. My father use to tell me about driving without a license.

WHODATHOUGHT!

[edit on 10-8-2010 by Tyrannyispeace]

Originally posted by Tyrannyispeace
I just have to ask everyone, why do you think MS came up with Windows Cardspace.

Soon you will have to purchase a LICENSE to have access to the internet.

Ask yourself, what use to be free?

They will probably set up a Internet Drivers Licensing bureau. You will have to stand in line for hours, have some 70ish IQ level government pensioned moron test you on PROPER internet etiquette.

They will have internet police giving you tickets for talking back against your overlords. etc etc etc.

I am NOT kidding. My father use to tell me about driving without a license.

WHODATHOUGHT!

[edit on 10-8-2010 by Tyrannyispeace]

Wait?
Are you talking about the internet service provider called "America Online"?
Last I heard; They went out of business...