25 bucks from Google for your search data | Hacker News Reader

25 bucks from Google for your search data

9to5google.com

45 pointskovlex44 comments

Everyone seems to be approaching this deal from a strange angle. I understand that it is kind of funny for Google to paying people for their Chrome browsing data, but this just seems to be standard operating procedure for research, market or any other kind. In my university/ramen days, I would do this kind of thing a lot. Nominal fees, often dispensed via gift card, as incentive for your time/contribution. I suspect the Knowledge Networks/Google partnership in this case is much more Knowledge Networks than Google.

This is really interesting; by giving due consideration for access to your browsing habits and the sites you visit and so forth, they admit that this is not something that they could necessarily have presumed to use for free. The $25 protects them, but I think in some ways it also protects us, or at least future-us.

It's interesting that there doesn't seem to be any country restrictions - this is usually the type of thing that is USA only.

Also, here's a direct link: http://www.google.com/landing/screenwisepanel/

I am constantly logged into my Google account. How is this any different? They track everything already. Now they are going to pay me for it?

By paying you, they get around privacy laws and can sell your data to anyone who wants it.

Anonymously? Or could someone come and request specifically your data?

Edit: my mistake. They will attempt to scrub data before sharing it (but make no guarantees).

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/02/google-paying-us...

I think they get to track all pages you visit, time spent per page, which parts of the page are in the viewport, for how long, where on the page you click, etc.

Not just a stream of what Google pages you visit.

Wonder how this impacts Incognito windows.

For the non-blackbox version where you install the extension, I'm assuming if you were paranoid you could just use Firefox's incognito mode.

No thank you. My privacy is worth a bit more than $25

It's 5$ every 3 full months of participation, up to 25$. Seems extremely low.

It is a low amount of money, but what are you giving up in order to get that money? A little privacy?

Edit: It seems like Google is giving you 5 dollars, for you to do absolutely nothing out of the ordinary

Out of curiosity, how much money would you need before you'd be willing to give up this aspect of your privacy?

A percentage of what they make from your data should be a fair deal. Although some (like myself) value privacy more than pocket money.

I'm willing to bet that would work out to FAR less than $25.

This is a year's worth of data-sharing, I think they will gain much more than the equivalent of $25 per user.

I doubt it, some CPM on things like travel sites are easily $25, 3 adds per page, you browse for say a fortnight looking at holidays you'll easily hit your 1000 views/$25 mark

That would be the best system. 95% of all revenue generated through use of the data, with transparent accounting of every use of the data. Some of that can be hard to quantify, but Google has already run these numbers. They wouldn't float a program like this if they didn't already know that a persons browsing history for a year can be used by them to bring in several thousand times more revenue than it will cost.

(As to how I got 95%.. I figured 10% is the centuries-old standard "finder's fee" people collect when they hook up a buyer and a seller. Google isn't even doing this. They're doing more the equivalent of 'let us harvest all the wheat from your field, and we'll go sell it'. Google can't grow the wheat, so they have to buy it from someone else. You could sell it directly, but it would be a minor pain in the ass. So they're likely entitled to about half of the standard finder's fee.)

For me, the answer to that question depends on what happens with my data. Should I assume the worst?

Well that raises another interesting question, what is the worst? Is it selling it? Is it publishing your browsing history with your name on a blog?

The worst thing is probably publishing or acting on something that is, in order of importance: succinct, damaging, hard-to-refute, and true.

$25/month

That was my first thought too, and allowing it be revokable by either party.

Your ISP knows all the sites you visit.

Does it? VPNs make this easy to get around. Tor does as well. HTTP proxies.

99% of internet users uses none of the things you mentioned.

I'd say 99.99%.

Using a VPN (or a proxy) just moves the argument from your ISP, to the ISP where the VPN endpoint is located.

But the data is no longer tied to me as it leaves the VPN-service.

I wouldn't be so sure: http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/2316022...

I am aware of this case, and have asked my VPN-service explicitly. Their (translated) reply was:

"We do not store any logs, and we are not planning to do so. Since we do not store anything, we have nothing to hand out to those who are asking."

This is exactly the data Google and MSFT and others get from toolbars. Google and MSFT use this kind of data to improve search results (noting how long users stay on a site, etc.). It's key to the Panda update. So it's no wonder Google pays people to install this.

Other than "Knowledge Networks" having the data, is there any downside for those of us already using Google Web History?

Google doesn't know all your Web History. For example it knows which links you clicked in search results but it doesn't know how much time you spent on them, when you closed them or which links you clicked on those pages.

Google Analytics?

As I said, I use Google Web History. Every link I click is logged to Google. They can figure out how much time I spent on each page from that.

If I understand correctly, you are referring to https://www.google.com/history/

Then it can track only links you click on Google websites. So you clicking on your friend's profile in Facebook will not get logged in here. Unless it is browser extension it can not track * every * link.

if you use the google toolbar for firefox, you can opt in to web history which tracks exactly what you say. i didn't see the option for it in chrome, and i don't think they make the toolbar for firefox anymore (?) but i used to find it a very useful feature.

I would do this. I would even keep it honest by not using other browsers for some stuff.

I can't parse the "would" here. Either you do it or you don't. What does "would" mean in this context? (unless you can't do it because you are not yet 13 years old)

Signup form seems to be broken.

Don't worry though, the spreadsheets team has been notified.

I think Bing was the worst thing that happened to Google. They've even started paying users now... I wonder how easy the system would be to game.

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