Google Privacy Quickies

Several notes about Google and privacy. First, Lucas123 informs us that Google's global privacy counsel blogged about an improvement in Google's data-retention policies: the company plans to anonymize data it stores about users after 18 months — a slight improvement on the "18 to 24 months" of the previous policy. This move may have come as a response to pressure from European regulators. Next, Spamicles sends in word that an EFF attorney has been photographed by Google's Street View. The funny thing is, this isn't the first time it's happened. Finally, word from reader tamar that if you choose to share a video from Google Video to another social network like MySpace, your username and password get sent over http in plaintext, rather than the more secure https.

http vs https

[tehwebguy]

One of the services which Google Video connects to, MySpace, doesn't ever use https..

This is the login page:
http://www.myspace.com/ [myspace.com]

Re:Photographed in public? Oh well!

[bberens]

Smoking affects the company's bottom line if they self-insure, meaning they partially or fully fund the payments to your doctors. Many large companies do this to save money. They pay [insert insurance company] a small fee to handle the paperwork and all of that but then the insurance company pulls funds to pay for procedures/drugs/whatever from an account funded by your employer.

Cheers,
B