Digg Founder Kevin Rose's Pownce Raises Privacy Concerns

http://www.weburbanist.com/2007/06/27/pownce-kevin-roses-newest-venture-sounds-like-glorified-email/

by deramisan • 19 years ago

1 8 19 years ago

willarson4• 19 years ago

Its great to see people who haven't used a service making misguided claims. Pownce's advertisements are akin to those on Facebook's recent update page: they are simple text ads.

Nothing about them, and certainly nothing about the quote used in the article, suggest that they are using note context to target audiences.

This kind of article with haphazard speculation is no signal and all noise.

deramisan4• 19 years ago

There is nothing in the article 'claiming' that Pownce advertisements use note context - the article fully discloses (check the headline for crying out loud) that there are concerns about privacy, not that user privacy has been compromised.

There is no claim in the article that Pownce scrapes content, but nor does Pownce's privacy policy state that they don't. So you tell me: if it makes them more money, and they haven't said they won't do it, what will they do?

This kind of comment is at least as misleading as a self-professed speculative article it is reponding to.

P.S. Which do you work for - Google or Pownce?

willarson4• 19 years ago

As a quick preface, I usually think its much easier to have a coherent conversation when we actually reply to the comment we referring to, otherwise it won't be listed in the threads section and will easily go unseen.

"Moreover, they will "run some small advertisements in your list of notes" which sounds a lot like GMail., which crawls through emails to find keywords then uses those to display ads on your GMail pages."

That sentence insinuates that Pownce is--or will--use data context to increase ad relevancy. I don't believe I am inaccurately representing the article by saying so. I don't know the details of the Pownce private policy, but I do know that the excerpt I quoted (the only excerpt of the policy contained in the article) is meaningless in regards to using context to serve ads.

Sitting back and accepting this sort of speculative commentary is detrimental because it adds confusion and misinformation without bringing with it any merit to redeem itself. This article could have been done in a valid way, by an individual with an understanding of the American legal system, there may indeed be more than illusionary specters to the issue of Pownce's privacy policy, but we won't learn anything from the haphazard and speculative inquiry that this post embodies.

deramisan4• 19 years ago

Let's just keep this simple:'

1) We know Kevin Rose isn't a man of principle - he sides with corporations to save his skin, then the mob if he risks losing his followers (see: Digg HD-DVD scandal)

2) There is money to be made by targetting ads that used scraped content as a basis for choosing what to display to who (see: Google)

3) There is nothing in the Pownce privacy policy that says they won't scrape your content.

So a guy who will do what it takes for his company, right or wrong, has a ton of content he could scrape to increase ad revenue and he isn't saying that he won't do that. Is it reasonable or not to then 'be concerned' about ones privacy? You tell me what part of this you disagree with.

"Many companies offer programs that help you to visit websites anonymously. While Megatechtronium will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these programs are available." (Pownce.com/privacy)

What do you suppose they mean by a 'personalized experience'?

Digg Founder Kevin Rose's Pownce Raises Privacy Concerns

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