Comments on: Google’s Marissa Mayer on Privacy vs. Transparency

By: The Importance of Transparency | alexnaboulsi

The Importance of Transparency | alexnaboulsi — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:36:00 +0000

[...] is important to realize that being transparent also means giving up some of your privacy as Google’s Marissa Mayer points out. Information such as job titles and information that may reveal motive are necessary to [...]

By: jeremy

jeremy — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:37:18 +0000

They’ll act on it only when they see a clear way to extract benefit from it. Otis, read this Ten things Google has found to be true: 1. Focus on the user and all else will follow. From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible. While many companies claim to put their customers first, few are able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder value. So I'm telling you that there is a clear way to extract benefit from transparency: Users will benefit. And Google claims that what benefits the users benefits themselves. QED. Or are you saying that Google is just another one of those companies that claims to put the user first, but doesn't actually do it? In bold contradiction to their #1 philosophy? Oh, wait, you do say this: Like everyone else. Google has long claimed, even held as a prized ideal, the notion that they are not like everyone else. If they really are like everyone else, they need to say so. There is clear value to the user in knowing and understanding this.

By: Otis Gospodnetic

Otis Gospodnetic — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:11:20 +0000

Of course they see it. They’ll act on it only when they see a clear way to extract benefit from it. Like everyone else.

By: jeremy

jeremy — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:46:32 +0000

oh my goodness, this is the money quote: “Well I think that in all cases it’s a tradeoff, right, where you will give you some of your privacy in order to gain some functionality.”

Someone needs to tell Marissa/Google that it works the opposite way around. Google needs to understand that it needs to give up some of its own (algorithmic) privacy (aka lack of transparency) in order for the users to gain functionality. It’s the same argument!

Why can’t they see this? It floors me sometimes.