Google 'Account Activity' Jumps Into Personal Analytics 64
An anonymous reader tips news of a new feature announced by Google today: Account Activity. Writing on their official blog, Google's Andreas Tuerk said, "If you sign up, each month we’ll send you a link to a password-protected report with insights into your signed-in use of Google services. For example, my most recent Account Activity report told me that I sent 5 percent more email than the previous month and received 3 percent more. An Italian hotel was my top Gmail contact for the month. I conducted 12 percent more Google searches than in the previous month, and my top queries reflected the vacation I was planning: [rome] and [hotel]." You may remember from earlier this month that Stephen Wolfram began showing some of the extensive personal analytics data he has collected over the past 20 years.
Belly button contemplation (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Belly button contemplation (Score:0, Insightful)
You go right ahead and use your personal analytical data to be self-absorbed. I'll use your personal analytical data (and yours, and yours, too) and mine the shit out of it to gain whatever advantage I can over you. Most probably financial advantages to start with and then political ones. Duh.
I love this. (Score:5, Insightful)
Google is in the midst of an effort to inform people about privacy. Not by saying "hey, listen up" and then dictating information to them, but by doing everything they can to get people to look at Google's own use of data and the rules they set for themselves around privacy. All those times when they kept telling us that their privacy policy had changed? Yeah, that's a part of it. Also, for those in urban envionments who take the L, T, Subway, Metro, whatever...you've probably seen the ads explaining at a high level how they use the data they collect to personalize search results. Now this is the next step: giving them the opportunity to see how analytics work in a way that is relevant to their understanding, and to their own lives.
The big problem with privacy isn't that people aren't getting it...it's that people aren't demanding it. But until they know what privacy really is (no, it's not security) and how it works, that won't change. Until they actually pay attention to what is being done with their own information, how can we expect an uproar over the abuse of it? That's what Google is up to now, and I commend them for it. They are playing a VERY forward-thinking game, and are truly acting in the best interests of the common good.
Re:Something married men should stay away from. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure your wife would love to know that you're looking for porn 5% more this month.
Pfft! Most women don't care if their guy looks at porn. They just want him to pick up after himself and not sit on the couch after work all night watching TV with his hand in a bag of potato chips. Many marriages are sexless ones, especially after kids are in the picture. So really, while they wouldn't care about their man looking at porn, they'd probably be surprised -- I mean, who has time to masturbate when you've got two screaming kids who, if left unattended for more than 2 minutes will destroy everything you own and ever loved? Nobody, that's who.
Re:Something married men should stay away from. (Score:5, Insightful)
Though it's probably smarter than using Froogle