The joining of forces by many well known and very big companies, such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, has really put Microsoft in my face, and for the first time, I've started thinking about switching to open source operating systems. Recently, I downloaded Google Talk. I then started getting directed to Windows Media Player, every time I tried to open any media. I was annoyed and did a search for Windows Media Player in my computer, deleting every file that was deletable: that didn't solve the problem, as there were about four files that I was told could not be deleted. So, I still get asked, every time I try to open any media, if I wouldn't like to download the new version of Windows Media Player. I can't simply delete the message, as it reappears immediately, when I try again. So, I have to first go to my media player of choice, then select the media using that player, in order to avoid the problem. This was not an issue before I downloaded Google Talk, so I an convinced it came as part of Google's package. On another subject, I recently opened a Facebook account and provided, as they requested, an email contact address. First, I started being asked about people I might have known in Vietnam: I thought nothing of it. Then, I started being asked about people I might have known in Kazakhstan, and realized they must be searching my email for people I'd corresponded with. I hate this reaching into my business and immediately searched for the option in Facebook to close the account. It wasn't that easy to find, and when I did, I was told the deletion would be fully implemented "in two weeks". I was always a little leary of getting into Facebook, and this convinced me that I'd been right to be. I sent a message to Yahoo asking, basically, if they have some kind of agreement with Facebook that allows them to share data because, when I tried to delete all old messages that had any reference to Facebook, the delete function in my Yahoo account would not allow me to simply delete the messages, as I could with all other messages. Instead, it would put a line through the title of the message, and leave it in place. This stinks, in my opinion, but is probably the direction the big boys are taking us, reducing the options for using the internet the way we would like to, in favor of using it in the way that makes them the most money.+
I'm pretty sure Google, Microsoft and Facebook havent 'joined forces', they are fierce rivals and have many competing products. But one thing is for sure - they all have in common the fact that they want to mine as much data from you as possible, to better market their advertisers and make more money. Google are the worst, they dress it up as security and improving end users experience when really all they want to do is sniff out as much information about you as possible. Their search engine results have become a joke, squeezing out the little guys like me to make place for their own products and big brands that pay big bucks. Things will get worse over the next few years. Lots of people are now switching to Bing (Microsoft) for their search results, but Bings morals will be exactly the same if they can reach a large enough market share. Facebook are almost as bad, but it's the naive users there that get me. So many people think Facebook is the Internet and never look at another site. Every day I see people permitting access for applications to their info that auto post spurious stuff to their wall, people circulating 8 yr old hoaxes and being taken in on scams that unscrupulous marketers put out there. The main thing with Facebook is to not allow applications to access your data. The email thing you mention V, that is something you can click No too - if it's accessing your address book, it's because you gave it permission to. I'm very sure that this is just the start. There is worse to come.
Thanks for your comments, Steve. I've already asked to have my account deleted, and I'm not going to sign up again just to see what the settings were, though I now know to watch as carefully as I can to see what they may be, if I sign up for some other web based service. My question is a little different though: suppose the settings gave them permission to look at my yahoo email account, how do they do that without Yahoo giving them permission, or my giving Facebook my password to my Yahoo email?
