For a company that supposedly “does no evil”, we find it rather strange that they have, from time to time, irked their many users via a certain action. Well, over the weekend, we did bring you word that Google has a new ad policy that has raised the ire of many Google users, which resulted in them replacing their profile photos with that of a certain Eric Schmidt. The reason behind this widespread move? It seems that Google did mention that the company will soon have the ability to depict users’ names, photos, ratings as well as comments in ads on the Internet, using those to endorse a marketer’s product. Right now, Facebook is already running endorsement ads that are not different from such ideals.
According to Google this is but a minor update, but it does lead one to think just how much personal information should one share online, and how much do such companies treasure our personal information which were given voluntarily? Both Google and Facebook claim that such changes were meant to offer users a more comprehensive and personalized service range, but it does not sit down well with privacy advocates who claim that such information usage does not jive with the way that authors themselves expected when they first posted it. What is your take on the situation?
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