Comments on: Microsoft’s Competitive Advantage: Privacy

By: Benlog » Putting the “End” in EndNote.

Benlog » Putting the “End” in EndNote. — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:02:36 +0000

[...] apparently that’s not okay with Thomson Reuters, the makers of EndNote. Danny Weitzner explains: The latest beta release of Zotero will read and write EndNote’s proprietary metadata format. In [...]

By: Benlog » Google, the Desktop, and Privacy

Benlog » Google, the Desktop, and Privacy — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:12:38 +0000

[...] Desktop for Mac, and that got me thinking again about the Google and Privacy issue I wrote about here and here. I said that Microsoft might have an interesting privacy advantage, because your data [...]

By: Benlog » Google & Privacy

Benlog » Google & Privacy — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:51:05 +0000

[...] a notable improvement in their privacy practices, which reinforces the opinion I expressed in a post a few days ago. Could it be that Google is starting to feel consumer demand for privacy? I think it’s [...]

By: ben

ben — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:54:27 +0000

I think Google doesn’t provide much in terms of privacy assurances. Few people have been horribly burned so far, but that will likely change as businesses start using Google Apps, etc… There is certainly a lack of awareness of the privacy issues regarding storing your data at a service provider, you’re right. But that awareness may go up significantly as soon as there a few bad cases.

I’m less worried about data in transit than I am about data stored on hard drives, backups, etc…. But of course that doesn’t mean one should be careless about data in transit, you’re right.

By: ben

ben — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:54:00 +0000

I’m less worried about data in transit than I am about data stored on hard drives, backups, etc…. But of course that doesn’t mean one should be careless about data in transit, you’re right.

By: Name

Name — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:15:41 +0000

I don’t see this as a significant advantage. The average consumer is not concerned by this (and rightly so). Why? Because Google hasn’t given them a reason not to trust them. Google provides various assurances (like no human reads your email – it’s only accessible to programs – or something like that.) Unless you think Google is lying about that, most people are happy enough with that. And if you think you can’t trust Google that much, you’ll be out of luck using the Internet given your lack of control over your data as it hops about once it is off your host, no?

By: Name

Name — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:15:00 +0000

By: John Palfrey » Blog Archive » Ira Rubinstein on Microsoft’s Corporate Privacy Guidelines

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 21:29:56 +0000

[...] of the conversation, prompted by JZ and Ben Adida, revolved around a lawyer’s problem: what happens after a subpoena arrives seeking personally [...]