Over 250,000 Documents Released by Wikileaks‎

The stuff that did get out was open to an enormous number of people. That's probably why there were no surprises in the data set -- all of this had already been leaked through less public channels.

True. There's a long line of people waiting to replace Assange after he goes to prison for rape.

I think that's just a reflection of the disorganization which is the U.S. government.

 

I think it's worth noting how much trouble one can get into by collecting all this data on people in the first place...As they've said for years, in the wrong hands the info we're collecting can prove dangerous... Google knows all your problems. I wonder how much information are these people storing about YOU and what happens when someone decides to release it 'in the public interest'.

Although the idea of collecting so much info might be beneficial to society in many ways, there's simply too much bad that others can do with it too. You must remember that not everyone thinks like you (and me). Once they have the info, what's to stop 'nutters' wiping out the gays, the polio sufferers, the inside traders, in fact anything that falls out of favour with someone in a position of power?

 

That type of info has been available for years since hacking the US government servers used to be a hobby among certain crackers the only difference now is that the documents are "official" and butthurting towards any non-US diplomat .

 

I think it is great that we are finding out about all this information. Especially like the leak of Chinese officials stating that a united Korea would work best under the control of Seoul.

Also a bit convenient about the rape charges, then to be dropped by Swedish authorities after.

 

They were un-dropped.

 

I happen to agree with your position on data collection, though it has little to do with the topic at hand. Preventing Google from having your information is fairly simple. Deny them it. Host your mail somewhere else, if you really need hosted mail. Do your searches somewhere else. Encrypt your traffic to a shared VPN box. DONT POST STUPID PICTURES OF YOURSELF ON FACEBOOK OR TWEET ABOUT SCRATCHING YOUR ASS EVERY TWO MINUTES. Those who legitimately care about their privacy are already not sacrificing their privacy for convenience, and are taking measures to protect their data.

 

The only difference is that google is storing your private information under an agreement to not release it (and fighting the US government to protect it) while wikileaks is releasing information which is the property of the people to begin with. As wikileaks puts it, "If people elect their governments to represent them, then they should know what their governments are doing." Besides, wikileaks is just doing what every journalist has been doing since ages.

 

I guess by that logic, our nuclear arsenal is also the 'property of the people' and should be stolen by a guy like Assange and distributed to the American people. What a load of crap. We are a country of laws. The laws are formed by popular consent. The military exists by popular consent. The military does its job by popular consent. Interference with how the military does its job also requires the will of the people and due process, neither of which were present in this case. The guy is aiding in the breaking of US law, if not in direct violation of US law himself.

Personally, I don't so much care about Julian because he is not the source of the information and he is not a US citizen. Private Manning, and anyone else found guilty of leaking the information should be shot for treason/espionage. I suspect Julian will catch a bullet from one of the other not so friendly nations whose leaders comments he made painfully public. I cant say I'll shed a tear.

 

Helvetii may have a point, this is just one huge scoop and Assange hit the home run - and for open gov't. The dog wagging the tail for a change.

 

A good point as usual. But, being owned by shareholders...what happens when they work out how to monetize the information? Being publicly owned (on the stockmarket) means, by law, that they have to follow the money above all else. I think it's only a matter of time before it's used for immoral purposes, if it's not being done already....

 

They have/It is. Google has been aggregating and monetizing the information for quite some time. They are also the first stop shop for government subpoenas when they want information. Lets also not forget there is no organization on the planet that is truly free of corruption. Having worked with a couple private investigation firms in the early 90s, they would constantly bribe phone company and banking employees for private information, which was always provided quickly. If you think Google employees aren't already selling that information out the back door to people with money, you are out of your mind. How do you think TMZ gets the outrageous scoops it gets?

 

I'm not talking adsense or adwords, i'm talking about the other stuff that isn't currently monetized such as the things we're searching for and other 'telling' information. The things like the network logins they collect whilst touring sites fore street view etc.

So your stance is sticking your fingers in your ear singing LaLaLa instead of doing something about fixing it? Good one, you're clever.

Agreed this happens all the time and Google employees are subject to the same corruption as all others, but is that what we should strive for or fight against?

 

It is being monetized, I notice it daily. Just a moment back I was searching for Dry Nitrogen gas in car tires and was shown nitrogen cylinder ads on a "Slavery and religion" thread.

And what kind of information was that? Address? DOB? Call records? Bank transactions? I don't know if this is news to you but all that information is very easily accessible by employees or even you if you can take over their machine....

Call me out of my mind but I believe that no human at google has access to our private information. They do collect a lot of information but its mostly encrypted and never read by humans. So individual employees couldn't sell it even if they wanted to.

 

This doesn't just happen on your searches. It happens on the contents of your G-Mail. I suspect it happens against every piece of relevant information Google holds on your behalf including location based data.

For them not to mine the data they have would be irresponsible to their shareholders, as Bushranger pointed out. Adsense is only one means of monetizing data, and perhaps the least intrusive since it focuses on search data. Firms pay big bucks for market research on such data. I wont spend the time right now to figure out how, but it is my understanding that one of Google's innovation policies is that employees spend 20% of their time on unmanaged side projects exploring their own ideas, and from such side projects we got things like Google Maps, etc. If I worked at Google, I'd be spending my free 20% on new ways to exploit and sell that data.

That was my point. If the data exists, it can be sold.

If that were true, they would not need to respond to government Subpoenas. Such "never read by human information" has already brought convictions in US court cases.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5165854

 

Read the link, first paragraph:

The article is from 2006. Broad data on search habits is publicly available now (google trends? pornistan?).

Google and other big sites have a privacy agreement with their users and courts or governments don't have any reason or power to terminate that agreement with retrospective effect. No amount of money can help for example solarproducts to get a google employee at the highest or lowest level to give out any private info about you to him even if they wanted to

 

I guess I should have provided the links to stories where exactly such information was surrendered to the government under subpoena, which means it is accessible to at least some Google employees. I would have assumed you were aware of these cases. For your reading enjoyment:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1576923/Google-poisoner-tried-to-murder-husband.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/14/techie_murder_evidence/

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-09-19-n79.html

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070313/214910.shtml

There are many many many many more examples. Some come from pulling browser logs off of personal, company, or university computers, but more than a few come from subpoenas to Google for the same information. Here is something else you may not be aware of. If you keep your email with Google and you delete a mail, Google keeps it around for another 6-18 months, or longer if there is a data retention subpoena against your account. In other words, just because you no longer find the very personal and identifying information in your Inbox useful, doesn't mean Google doesn't.

 

Can you give me a link which exactly says that Google gave the information to court??

 

C'mon Helvetti you're making to much gold we all know that Google doesn't give a rat's ass about privacy . Having worked as black ops for a bit of time I can safely say that in 99.9% of the cases the personal information is leaked in minutes to hours , you just have to know who and how to ask for it . Even in tough cases a 5000$ investment will get you the info you need , ofc the money must be well used otherwise it will not produce any results .

 

Dude you are only 22

 

Apparently Assange is moving on to Wall Street bankers next, ooh, poor Rupert. That's probably why there's so much assasination rhetoric flying around atm, and with that news out, he can now truly expect it anytime.

He must have a deathwish? Most people do know though, it is not only Julian here, it's a whole organisation of people who will only ramp up the releases if Julian actually gets killed.