Nothing like giving away your name, address, birthday, favorite vacation spots, favorite restaurants, persistent to-the-minute status updates, friends' addresses, tagged photographs, e-mails, instant messages, bulletin board messages, search queries, and various add-on apps and toolbars that siphon more information from unsuspecting users - all under the veil of innocent applications such as keeping contact with friends, searching the Internet, reading e-mail, etc ... You realize this is how Google, Facebook, MySpace, etc... keep shop open right?
All the information I put on Facebook I realize is 100% public domain. That's why I don't put anything I wouldn't want employers to know up! I don't care if they know about my favorite TV shows, for instance. Or my hobbies.
What about all the information you provide without even a thought? Potential employers, girlfriends, and various other opportunities are one aspect. Let's take Google Ads for example. I wager that almost every
major website uses Google Ads. Do users realize that Google can track traffic based on cookies/IP because almost every
major website exposes users to Google Ads? Not at all!
Some years ago, AOL released a month's worth of search queries to the public for research purposes. Several security firms and news agencies were able to demonstrate that the identity of users could be revealed through IP and/or search queries (i.e. Searching for your name, address, social security etc...).
Now, recall that Google was recently hacked by China. The world's largest database of users, their names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, calendars, profiles, contacts, search queries, favorite vacation spots, favorite restaurants, friends' addresses, tagged photos, website databases, etc... were potentially accessible by the Chinese. I mean, the consequences aren't obvious, if any. Although, what about the Chinese who are staying abroad and viewing uncensored material that would normally be censored in China? What happens to them?
I've been saying all along, "Hey, Google has all this information about everyone ... what happens if they get hacked?"Google is insidious. They produce some of the coolest toys: Google Earth, Google App Engine, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Mail ... just to name a few. All of them are free! All of them are also plagued by privacy concerns (Just read criticism sections on wikipedia). How do you think they fund these projects?
At least you have a choice to provide information to Facebook and similar networks. With Google, you may not even know you're providing information. Just merely viewing a website can provide Google more of your website history. I don't like them, and I especially don't like that they were hacked by the Chinese.
Sorry to go off on this tangent.
If game play is affected too, that would be really disappointing. The forum is one thing ... I might not even buy SC2 now.