Originally published September 9 2011
CEO Schmidt admits Google+ is massive data-mining, advertising scheme
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) The new, but floundering, social media service Google+ has been exposed as being nothing more than a user-driven data mining and advertising scheme, similar to its popular predecessor, Facebook. In a recent interview with National Public Radio (NPR), Google's CEO Eric Schmidt admitted that Google+ has basically been designed to gather as much information as possible about individuals, which is then used by companies to market products and services specifically to users.
When asked by NPR journalist Andy Carvin why Google+ requires its users to use their real names or face penalties, Schmidt responded by saying that Google+ is an "identity service" that, according to Carvin's account, "depends on people using their real names if they're going to build future products that leverage that information."
In other words, Google forces Google+ users to use their real names in order to track their lifestyles, buying habits, and other personal information, so they can then sell this information to corporations. In the future, Google+ may use personal information for other unknown projects as well, of which its users may or may not be aware.
If users fail to use their real names, however, the information provided to Google+ remains anonymous, which is not appropriate to the company's seeming goal of implementing a system of internet identity verification. Such efforts are also apparent in the company's Gmail service, which requires new users to input a valid phone number, and that also petitions (though not yet requires) users to enter their real names.
"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place," stated Schmidt in an infamous CNBC interview, concerning the company's flagrant disregard for user privacy.
Schmidt's solution for those concerned about the privacy breaches of Google+, which is available directly on his personal Google+ profile, is basically to not use the service. This is, perhaps, his best advice yet.
Sources for this story include:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/eric-schmidt-adm...
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