Reliance Jio's announcement about levying IUC charge got me into thinking how we as consumers have become dependent on technology and how an announcement as small as this can impact our lives.
Anything that Apple does, makes news. However, usually it is positive news about how excited the customers are. This time, things changed for the negative. There was news floating around about the company’s tiff with the FBI and Apple came across as the loser. This was bound to make headlines.
A new policy is announced by the Modi government. The government claims it is ‘for’ the people. It thinks it has arrived. The people cry foul. The government hurriedly withdraws the policy. Then, ensue a series of defensive arguments and extensive media coverage about the government’s inexplicable move. And, this continues till the next policy is announced.
In spite of being an ardent admirer of companies like Google, I have critiqued Google’s privacy policy and terms of service in the past. There have been many like me who have raised concerns about the power such companies hold over us with our data in their hands; yet, these companies continue to flourish and earn goodwill. They must be doing something right that people continue to trust them with even more data.
Come 11 November, 2013 and Google would implement some major changes in its Terms of Service. The moot question is how many people are actually aware of the current Terms of Service to bother about the updates? Well, there are a sizeable number of people like me who do care and actually go through the updates. So, here is a brief for the benefit of those who are so busy using Google and its myriad of services that, ironically, they do not have time to pay heed to what Google itself is trying to tell them.
Two significant events related to Facebook have occurred recently. First, the arrest of two Mumbai girls for their Facebook comments about Bal Thackeray. The second, related to an announcement by Facebook itself about the change in its Data Use Policy. Even though the second event is a big one and affects all users of Facebook directly, sadly, the event has not made big news.
Google recently announced its new privacy policy. Is it not a good thing that a company is giving a prior notice to its users about its changed privacy policy? Why are many people getting apprehensive about this soon to be implemented policy? Here’s a look at what the hype is all about.