From the Guardian UK:
“Google has come under attack for violating users’ privacy and ignoring their wishes after admitting that it intentionally circumvented security settings in Apple‘s Safari browser to track users on both desktop computers and iPhones.
A number of other advertisers exploited the loophole it had created to track those users too.
“Our data suggests that millions of users may have been affected,” Jonathan Mayer, the independent researcher at Stanford University who discovered the workaround by the search giant, told the Guardian.
An Apple spokesman said: “We are aware that some third parties are circumventing Safari’s privacy features and we are working to put a stop to it.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a pressure group for users’ rights online, said that then admission was bad news for the company, coming so soon after the news that it is aiming to unite the data it keeps about people using different parts of its services such as YouTube and its main search engine.”
The report goes further:
“The circumvention, carried out by a small piece of code, meant that people could see messages indicating whether their associates in Google “Circles” on its Google+ social network had clicked on ads – but it also let Google and other advertisers see which websites people landed on.”
This is yet another piece of the puzzle supporting Google’s business plan to collect information on its’ user’s personal data for corporate exploitation…no matter what privacy laws may or may not allow.
Google’s rollout of Google+ ™ is the combining of all Google products into one system for one giant easy-to-use-one-stop service that will track everything the users does from web browsing to photo uploads to file transfers and file printing. Coupled with Apple’s IOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems, of which the latest phones and tablets are based upon, your private information is no longer private.
There is an alternative:
FileLinx allows the two-way transfer of any file or (multiple files) between your Android device and PC in addition to print of most major file formats to your PC-connected printer, from anywhere in the world, without reverting to “The Cloud.”
FileLinx Professional, gives the User has the ability to access the entire “C” drive of a PC or any external drive, going into any folder and retrieving any file to an Android device. Likewise a User can send any file from an Android device to be stored anywhere on the computer’s hard drive (s) using an Android device.
Additionally, FileLinx Professional stores the settings of up to ten (ten) PC’s. This allows Professional Users the ability to login up to ten (10) different computers with the touch of a button using their Android device.
The result of these capabilities mean that any FileLinx User has what amounts to their own private “Cloud,” sharing information between their Android device and computer without ever having to resort to logging into a third-party server, or storing information in an off-site location. With FileLinx Professional, that capability expands by a factor of 10.
FileLinx, on the computer side functions by installing a small program that allows the PC to communicate with Android. This download is freely available to all users from the DroidLinx website. With FileLinx Professional a User could theoretically install FileLinx on 10 computers and connect to each one of them with the same Android device, effectively creating 10 (Ten) “Mini-Clouds.” Each one of these so-called “Clouds” operating under the sole control of the User with no outside monitoring. Your privacy remains your own.
With FileLinx’s ability to support multiple simultaneous Users, it is possible to share resources and information with an unlimited amount of FileLinx Users, all connecting to the same, or multiple computers…without the prying eyes of “Big Brother.”
FileLinx is sold exclusively on the Android Market, connects via a WiFi, 3G, or 4G connection and works on all Android tablets or phones versions 1.5 and up.