Chapter 4 | Question 1 | Google's Cloud: Building Data Centers the Hold Everything Ever Written

[sandra vega carrero]

 1. When Gmail was released the founders of Google were surprised that Gmail received negative feedback due to Google's use of AdSense to display advertisements related to email content. Many people felt that scanning emails was a violation of their privacy. Despite initial criticism, Gmail has been a huge success for Google. Do you use Gmail? If so how do you feel about Google's use of AdSense in personal email accounts?

[Beverly Pell]

This is a really great question. The ads really don't bother me because I'm a hyper-focused individual and (for the most part) not easily distracted. I rarely even glance at the ads. That said, many people may be distracted and wish they could have some control over the ads or specific ads. I found an interesting article (a year old) that may help users to eliminate some of the unwanted advertising parading on the screen due to email scanning. 

http://digiwonk.wonderhowto.com/how-to/you-cant-stop-gmail-from-scanning-your-emails-but-you-can-limit-their-ad-targeting-0154412/

[Christopher Simpson]

There are actually plugins for Chrome that will eliminate the ads and ad tracking altogether. It is one of the most popular addons for Chrome, but if you search the add on store, Google "mysteriously" makes sure that it does not appear in search results unless you specifically search for it by name.

I for one support online privacy, and do not want to be tracked online so I will share some addons you can use so that you cannot be tracked. 

There are addons that you can use to make sure Google and other sites such as Facebook, etc cant track you or display ads.

First off you will need an Ad Blocker, the two most popular are AdBlock and AdBlock Plus. Both do the same thing despite the plus in the name of the second one, you only need one or the other. Getting one one the addons mentioned above will only stop the ads from showing, but you will still be tracked. (You just wont see the results of the tracking) You will need another add on to actually block the scripts present on pages that track you.

To stop the tracking, there are two popular Addons, Disconnect,  and Ghostery. As with the other two addons above both do the same thing so you only need one or the other. 

Out of the two above, i prefer Disconnect because it will actually visually map the trackers on a site, and let you block them as well.

If you want Disconnect to show you everything, you will have to pause or disable the ad blocking plugin that you are using so that ads and other content can get through and be detected. Here are disconnects results on where gmail sends information:

Google does not send information in Gmail anywhere outside of gmail except for skype for me but other plugins or programs can change that.

[Sean Hadley]

I've used Gmail since 2006 and do like most of features that it offers and no, I don't like the idea of my mail being scanned. But I know that there isn't real 'privacy' on the internet. However, from a business standpoint I can understand why Google used AdSense to tailor advertisements to their user's interests. On the surface, the decision to use it made good business sense--especially to make it easier to market their sponsors to favorable users. Unfortunately, what made it easy, also made it quite sinister to people who 'expect' a level of privacy that really doesn't exist online. (Because of the openness of the infrastructure, number of mail servers, etc.)    

On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 1:51:27 PM UTC-5, sandra vega carrero wrote:

[Peter Schaad]

I use gmail for my main email provider.  I am also wary of how much information Google has been able to collect about its users.  While it is unlikely that Google would ever use this knowledge for "evil" purposes, I feel it is likely that at some point, Google's vast data centers will be compromised and we will see a data breach like never before.  I am not overly concerned with ads based on emails, personally I use a utility that blocks ads regardless of the webpage, so I don't even see them. 

On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 1:51:27 PM UTC-5, sandra vega carrero wrote:

[Maha Alfasi]

Although, I always use Gmail and I prefer to use it more than Yahoo or hotmail, but AdSense bother me and I wonder how much of AdSense Google allows website owners to  on their sites, and the ads are different form, either be written ads, image advertisements, Video advertising. I feel that Google should rationing Google's use of AdSense.

On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 1:51:27 PM UTC-5, sandra vega carrero wrote:

[Jake Montgomery]

I've also used gmail for a long time. (Remember back in the day when you had to be invited?) Anyway, I like it. I guess I never really thought about the ads before reading this, though I'm not particularly surprised. I do know I was kind of caught off guard when a bunch of ads for colleges/universities started showing up right about the time I graduated high school. In terms of this being a privacy issue, I don't really email anything that I would worry about other people getting a hold of, so even if Google reads/stores everything I've ever done, I don't mind. The only thing that irritates me about AdSense is that it can be so easily manipulated. It seems like one or two emails can set off a whole chain of new ads sometimes.

[sandra vega carrero]

I really like the website you share... there are very simple steps we can take in order to eliminate unwanted advertising!!  Thank you

On Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 10:09:29 AM UTC-5, Beverly Pell wrote:

[sandra vega carrero]

Those addons are very useful, specialy with facebook... They kept track of all our interests .... it is kind of annoying to see how they can make money out of their users.

[sandra vega carrero]

Sean you have mentioned a very important aspect about privacy... There is no one!! ... Still, we believe in it... but we have not idea what they are doing with all the information they are gathering...

[sandra vega carrero]

That is so true... your comment is very connected to Sean's... there is not real privacy... we don't really know what is going to happen in the future with all the data they are collecting.

[sandra vega carrero]

Me too, I also prefer to use gmail, rather the Hotmail... that is interesting, because years ago I used to love Hotmail.... and messenger etc, but since Gmail started to provide more storage, I started to move to Gmail... and I like it better because of its simplicity.. yahoo is very annoying because of their news... they have too many information at the begining... I don't really like it...

[sandra vega carrero]

You don't email anything that you should be feeling worry about... and that is good... probably you don't do it because you don't believe in the privicy terms.

[Melania Piedra Barrera]

Gmail is my main account.  I still have others like Hotmail and I use that one for things like subscriptions and things I don´t want to see everyday in my main mail.

As someone mentioned before, we can not believe that we have real privacy on the internet, and I think that the objective of the AdSense is to make our lives "easier" in the sense that when they "know" we are looking for something specific or our interest goes to something in particular, they help us in the search of possible things we might be interested in.

[Alauna Thornton]

Yes, I use Gmail.  I don’t notice AdSence really that much. I find Gmail to be very user friendly and prefer it rather than the other options available.

I found it interesting to find out that Google AdSense is likely the most popular advertisement service on the web.  This is good to know for those entities looking to generate income from clicks on the web site.  Of course, the website would need to be very popular to generate sufficient income.  I learned about this form https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/adsense/introduction.htm

On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 1:51:27 PM UTC-5, sandra vega carrero wrote: