And yet people are suddenly freaking out that Google Reader now shares your shared items with people you have communicated with on Google Talk. The shared items show up right there in Google Reader, making it easy to see what people you know are reading. People are acting like this is suddenly a new thing that what you have chosen to share with the world is being shared with people you have "spoken" to.
I am not the only person who thinks that people are over-reacting. As I have said, sharing is not new and it has always been to the entire Internet. I guess having it be an opt-out thing (since Google Reader automatically adds people) instead of an opt-in thing (like having people subscribe to an RSS feed) bugs people. But that is more of an annoyance than some great invasion of privacy or something to cause people to freak out to the level they have been. Google is not sharing feed items that you as a user had not explicitly stated you wanted shared, so there is no privacy invasion. People just need to calm down.
2 comments:
People are absolutely over-reacting and piling on. The truth is, as the Web grows, we need to stop being so close-minded, and realize that massive transparency is where everything is going. We were never told our shared items list, complete with their own PUBLIC URL were to be private.
And it looks like Google Reader blinked.
BTW - you weren't the only one who thought the discussion was silly. I 100% agreed with you.
@louisgray:
Yeah, I saw the Google Reader thing. I think they could have clarified the situation and just made the friend thing an opt-in feature it would have solved the issue in a way that didn't seem like they gave in.
And you are right about the whole transparency thing. Once something is done in connection of the Internet at least one person you didn't intend to see it will. It's just the way the big, ol' Internet works.
Maybe this will get Google to clean up their contacts management on Gmail. =) That would be nice.
Post a Comment