[vox] orkut is evil

[Mark K. Kim]

Interesting article.  Well... I can certainly understand the concern but
if I may point out a few things:

 - Orkut is only affiliated with Google.  It's designed and run by
   a Google engineer, but it's not technically "Google's Orkut."
   <You can insert all the reasons Google controls Orkut here, but..>
   I'd expect Register to be more accurate...

  - Passport is a password and user information (including
    credit cards, as I recall) management system.  They should
    *not* be allowed to distribute information without the
    user's permission.

  - Orkut, on the other hand, is a information distribution system.
    Anyone on the planet is supposed to be allowed to see the
    information you give them - to your friends, people trying to
    find you, etc.  That's the nature of the website.  It only
    makes sense that Orkut puts that in their privacy statement
    and reserve such right and inform the user about it.  Now, perhaps
    they should restrict themselves on how and in what manner
    they are allowed to distribute the information, but if I were
    an Orkut engineer I wouldn't be so quick to give up rights
    straight off the bat on a website that's still in beta.

I'd watch 'em carefully but I wouldn't call them evil just yet.  Still,
the article is a good reminder.  Just my 2 yens...

-Mark


On Sun, 8 Feb 2004, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> just in case there are people who haven't seen it yet:
>
>
>    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35375.html
>
>
> do a google search.  you'll find some interesting stuff about orkut
> (and, unfortunately, google).
>
> pete

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