Hi everyone, I guess I am one of the lurkers on the listserv, but here goes my first contribution: Buzz. If you have used the new google social network service, how do you feel about the seeming violation of privacy? A few days ago, I decline my Gmail's insistence on adding trying the new feature/service. Now, the New York Times has a great article (Critics Say Google Invades Privacy with New Service: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/technology/internet/13google.html) on how users' rights to privacy appear to have been violated. The article raises the interesting question of how totalitarian regimes may use the service to suppress political dissent. Google's rhetoric and carefully constructed image following its row with China is put to test. Anyway, I am curious as to how AIR members have found the feature with regard to both privacy and security. Cheers, Aziz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aziz Douai, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Communication Program Faculty of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies University of Ontario Institute of Technology 2000 Simcoe Street North Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4 E-mail: aziz.douai@uoit.ca/ azizdouai@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both." James Madison, 1822 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------