Apparently starting November 11 Google is planning to display the names and photos of its users in its advertisements without their explicit permission. As far as I can tell it will be mostly people who make recommendations and give reviews, and people can opt out ahead of time. But it makes some of us nervous. No doubt we will hear more about it in the weeks to come.
In the meantime it reminds me of Andy’s mother. She shunned publicity, and one of her sayings was,
Fools names, like their faces,
Always appear in public places.
Andy agreed with her, and poor Kaitlin heard those words a lot when she was young. Then one evening at the dinner table she said, “Father, when I grow up I’m going to be rich, and I’m going to give a building to a university and name it after you.” Well, that got our attention. She continued, “And inside there’s going to be a big picture of you with a plaque underneath. The plaque will say, ‘Fools names, like their faces….’ ”
Well done, Kaitlin. Well done!
Thanks for sharing this. I had seen the notices for a new privacy policy, but just acknowledged them and didn’t read. I just opted out of my info and image being shared. I am going to share the article on Facebook.
Another wonderful reason not to use Google+, which is where the advertizing policy applies, to its 390 million users.
I actually totally unsubscribed from Google+ a few months back. Unfortunately, I then discovered that that subscription was also linked to using YouTube, where my 108 little videos reside. Suddenly, my YouTube account was gone — until I reregistered in Google+.
I use several Google services, but not Google+, even though I’m reluctantly a registered user.
I don’t think I ever registered for Google+. I did put two YouTube videos up, but when I went to Google+ it asked me to create a profile. No thank you. I also don’t have much of a profile on Facebook or Google itself, so presumably I’m fairly safe. It will be interesting to see how much of a backlash they receive.
I doubt very much that Google will put my photograph and name up for those things that I will endorse! Nor do I visualise anyone else from my blogging friends getting that honour!
But Kaitlin is something else altogether! We need more people like that.
Yes, she does all right. 🙂 Even as a teen she had a sense of humor.
I told Tom the “Fool’s names & fool’s faces” Kaitlin story & he merrily laughed out loud, which isn’t like him.
My mother & I each called our fathers “Daddy”. My kids/children call Tom “Dad”. Interesting that Andy is “Father”. I wonder if it’s a family thing or a locality one/where you live.
“Father” was a Browman thing. I was Mommy (then Mom), he has always been Father.
I’ll definitely be opting out of the google thing.
I guard my online reputation very carefully – the currency of the blogosphere is reputation.
I imagine we won’t be the only ones. It will be interesting to follow the story.