Kind of scarey, if its true :
http://godofseo.co/case-study/webspam-team-actively-monitoring-gmail/#axzz2uNfMDUYQ
Gary.
there have been rumours for a long while, although to be honest I expect the spam team have something better to be doing than reading our emails. It doesn't read as a very scientific test to be honest.
if it makes people consider what they're doing a bit more, then thats good. I had a conversation with an SEO the other day who had been asked by the client to share the link report (that one that says where they were considering approaching for links and how much had been paid for successful ones*) via Google docs. I don't know if that's funny or makes me want to borrow a gun off dogboy....
* allegedly these reports exist, I don't know 'cos I don't buy links. 8)
It's too risky for them. It plays into google FUD / paranoia brilliantly, but it just doesn't stack up. If they were caught doing this then trust in gmail and drive collapses & G needs those as ad platforms for the future (they have few other non-web only platforms) . They'd also be hauled over the coals of major privacy enquiries in every country that cares for such things. It would be a huge and blatant breach of something they have specifically stated in courts they they don't do. The fallout would be huge... And for what? Unreliable, small scale data.
Cutts probably started the rumour to fuck with SEOs some more :D
Anyway the NSA data centre in Utah is doing it for them ;+}
Gary.
Quote from: Rooftop on February 26, 2014, 08:29:08 AM
It's too risky for them. It plays into google FUD / paranoia brilliantly, but it just doesn't stack up.
Exactly - I have to call bullshit on this article based on vapor. It's an Occam's Razor problem - other analyses make more sense and stack up better.
I know this is my broken record, but here it goes again, with apologies.
Google (by which I mean the ecosystem of algos and humans, not the company) has gotten smarter, but compared to a true smart system, Google is still dumb. Primitive even. Just not *as* primitive as five years ago. But in 30 years when you tell your grandkids that you remember having to type combos of keywords until you found a result, they are going look puzzled and ask what a keyword is.
Because Google is dumb, it can't rely fully on algorithmic solutions that do nothing but surface the best content. It wouldn't have the computing horsepower to do that if there were no consequences to being a spammer (i.e. no penalties for bad behavior).
So Google not only wants there to
be a downside for spamming, they want there to
appear to be a downside. In fact, the latter is more important than the former, because it helps keep the data set more manageable.
I'm not talking about some nefarious secret plot here. I'm just repeating what Google says, but in different words. Anyway, the point being that you always have to remember that not only is Google out to catch spammers, they are out to make everyone afraid of getting caught spamming. And you have to filter these kinds of paranoid posts with very, very thin data through that.
If you remember the old days when Matt would show up at Pubcon with all the special Google tools and in seconds connect networks where people thought they were so clever spreading things across different IPs, registrars and hosts, you know that a lot of these people are not as clever as they think they are. They're leaving footprints all over the web that Google can connect without snooping on their email.
That said, I still like this policy for all areas of life: if you don't want something to get forwarded to the wrong person, use the telephone. That keeps it between you, your friend and the NSA.
QuoteThat keeps it between you, your friend and the NSA.
That's land line of course. I am sure skype calls can be read just as easily as emails.
A mate of mine has drum he beats that the reason why crime is down year on year, is because of cctv being everywhere. And they can lip read of course.
Here is a couple of thoughts, if its not too off topic.
Why are there no microphones about our cities? Or are there? Is Google collecting any CCTV data it can too?
I bet someones thought about it.