[iDC] Google Buzz and the Surveilance Economy

[Andreas Schiffler]

Thanks Christian for this post.

Interestingly enough, 5 years ago people weren't quite sure yet of 
what's to come (see 
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2005/pulpit_20051117_000873.html).

Attempting to rebuild the internet, as you suggested, seems like a 
daunting, time consuming task. While we wait, I'd like to suggest some 
links for practical measures every Mozilla user can take immediately: 
limit exposure one ad at a time with http://adblockplus.org, then mess 
with the search trail emanating from your IP with 
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/. Of course this won't really have 
any real effect unless one stops using buzz, facebook, twitter, flickr, 
etc. ... but it's a start. If anyone else has any suggestions - please 
post here.

Christian Fuchs wrote:
> Google Buzz: Economic Surveillance – Buzz Off! The Problem of Online 
> Surveillance and the Need for an Alternative Internet
> ...
>
> Overall, the introduction of Google Buzz shows that there is an 
> antagonism of privacy protection and economic surveillance interests on 
> the contemporary Internet that is dominated by commercial interests. It 
> might be time for thinking more about strengthening alternative Internet 
> platforms and the potentials for constructing an alternative Internet.
>