# Wasn't this company once a villain?



## aarhus2004 (Jan 10, 2004)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7290473.stm

and now look who has acquired it. The Internet grows daily more tacky as money talks.

Ben.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Ad far as I'm concerned they still are.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

And google is also a villain in the tracking you every where and now it will be worse.


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## DarqueMist (Jan 16, 2001)

hewee said:


> And google is also a villain in the tracking you every where and now it will be worse.


do you really care if a few cookies are tracking your wanderings online?
if so consider this, if you live in a major metropolitan area of North America chances are you can be followed by camera almost everywhere you go. On my way to work I walk through 3 intersection cameras, pass close by 3 instant tellers (which if you are to naive to know, contain cameras) as well as lobby / enterance cameras to numerous to mention. At work there are 14 disclosed cameras as well as well as a number of undisclosed ones (I know because as management I have had the opportunity to have to dig up footage for police issues), theses cameras track not only employees but also every person that enters the place.

Online or offline there are very few places that true privacy exists. The best advice that can be given regarding this is to do nothing that will embarrass you .... anywhere


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

DarqueMist said:


> do you really care if a few cookies are tracking your wanderings online?
> if so consider this, if you live in a major metropolitan area of North America chances are you can be followed by camera almost everywhere you go. On my way to work I walk through 3 intersection cameras, pass close by 3 instant tellers (which if you are to naive to know, contain cameras) as well as lobby / enterance cameras to numerous to mention. At work there are 14 disclosed cameras as well as well as a number of undisclosed ones (I know because as management I have had the opportunity to have to dig up footage for police issues), theses cameras track not only employees but also every person that enters the place.
> 
> Online or offline there are very few places that true privacy exists. The best advice that can be given regarding this is to do nothing that will embarrass you .... anywhere


Yes I don't like tracking at all. How would you like me walking right behind you everyplace you go inside or outside of your home. Tracking in person, camera or text files is still tracking but all in there own way.


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## luvduvs (Jul 8, 2007)

Google is actually a bit late - the other "villain" beat them to it - http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/18/technology/microsoft_aquantive/


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## aarhus2004 (Jan 10, 2004)

I am delighted with all the input on this thread.

A childhood game, played with much enthusiasm (in the UK) called simply, 'cowboys and indians', required a selection process since none of us wanted to play the 'villainous' indians, so we had to resort to the 'eeny meeny miney moe...' rhyme to determine who played which role (it ends with the line "if he squeals let him go" and if the finger pointed at one on the word 'go' an indian one had to be. There was, I recall, one rule - the villains never won. Lotsa fun.

I think we need the bad guys. How else can we have the good ones? Perhaps more significant is the line (or zone) of demarcation between the two. In that area lie all the possibilities for enhanced excitement. The profits are greater according to the risk taken. This is where the true heroes and villains exist - where the best game is played.

We can call it the Internet. 

Cheers.

Ben.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Just think how bad are ISP can be. They know everyplace we go no matter what are setting are on are computers. Firewall, router, no history or cookies does not matter because they know it all and if they keep all that info and use it for other things they could be the worse villain out there.


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## luvduvs (Jul 8, 2007)

hewee said:


> Just think how bad are ISP can be. They know everyplace we go no matter what are setting are on are computers. Firewall, router, no history or cookies does not matter because they know it all and if they keep all that info and use it for other things they could be the worse villain out there.


Hitwise would be the villain here


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

luvduvs said:


> Hitwise would be the villain here


I don't see Hitwise here at TSG.


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## luvduvs (Jul 8, 2007)

http://www.hitwise.com/ - these guys use ISP data to compile research reports to show site usage/behaviour etc.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Now that link should be in my hosts file along with others for that site.
images.hitwise.co.uk
www.hitwise.co.uk

Also http://hitwise.com, then http://www.hitwise.net and http://hitwise.net that takes you to http://www.hitwise.com/


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## gordon russell (Feb 7, 2008)

Hi DarqueMist , here in Britain I remember passing across Paisley's - outside Glasgow , Much smaller - main street junction in the early 1990's , in my friends car fitted with the then 'state of art' speed camera/stop light 'stealing' detector , he was a trans Europe trucker, and it registered 22 detectors/ e.m.f monitoring devices as we traversed that busy junction .
Britain is said to have the greatest number of cameras per head than anywhere in the world :this probably heavily weighted by London .
Yes , I do care . Does using my computer in my bedroom entitle me to more privvy -acy? or in the cludgie (Loo)... ( ;- ))
Seriously , I think what you can do with a computer and an internet connection should be as private as your diary or 'own business' work records, business plans, etc .
aarhus2004, #7 is a rather altruistic view , sound a bit 'evolutionary' . A good insight into how ALL advertising , can be found in "Frederik Pohl. The Frederik Pohl Omnibus - &#8226; The Wizards of Pung's Corners. 1959
&#8226; The Waging of the Peace. 1959 " .. two short, marvellous connected stories , maybe especially
if you are a sci-fi fan


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## Pawn3d (Apr 13, 2008)

> The online advertising market is expanding and Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are battling for dominance.


what's new?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Pawn3d said:


> what's new?


The fact that a company can beat Microsoft in an arena that it's very interested in dominating!


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## nuaeman (Apr 9, 2008)

Google is going to be top of the search & advertising markets for some time to come. Google is a business and businesses need to grow, although one company dominating the internet would be a bad thing because they could easily censor information it didn't want you so see.


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