It turns out that the company sporting the motto "don't be evil" has been asking parents nationwide to disclose their children's personal information, including Social Security Numbers, and recruiting schools to help them do it, all by entering an art contest.
The Contest is called "Doodle-4-Google". The company is even offering prize money to schools to enlist their help. Google even “OK’s” and “partners with” the following after school activities per their FAQ (I wonder how much who paid whom?):
“The Contest is also open to students who participate in one of the following “After School Programs” and are also enrolled in a U.S. School as defined above: (i) Boys & Girls Clubs of America; or (ii) Girl Scouts of the USA.” They avoided the Boy Scouts, though.
It sound like fun? Don't you want your kid to enter too?
OK! Who’s Eligible?
“4. Eligibility. The Contest is open to students enrolled in private or public elementary and secondary schools (grades K– 12) as well as home schools (grades K-12) in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, excluding U.S. territories (collectively, “U.S. School(s)”). The Contest is also open to students who participate in one of the following “After School Programs” and are also enrolled in a U.S. School as defined above: (i) Boys & Girls Clubs of America; or (ii) Girl Scouts of the USA. Registration opens January 19, 2011. Registration ends March 2, 2011 at 11:59:59 P.M. Pacific Time (PT). Only one doodle per Entrant is allowed. In the case of duplicate or multiple entries from the same Entrant, then the first entry to arrive at the designated submission address (as determined by the “received by” date) will be accepted as the entry into the Contest. Internet access is required to register for the Contest. At the time of submission of a Doodle, each Entrant must: (i) be a U.S. citizen or a permanent U.S. legal resident (e.g., must be able to show proof of legal permanent residence, for example, a “green card”); (ii) be enrolled in a U.S. School (defined above); (iii) have obtained his or her parents’ or legal guardians’ prior permission and have agreed to be bound by these Rules on the Parent Consent Form.”
The reason Google gives for doing this competition in their FAQ says it's because "We love to encourage and celebrate the creativity of young people..." etc. isn’t that nice?
W a i t a minute:
A huge database of names and addresses of American children, especially one that includes their dates of birth and SSNs, would be worth many millions to marketing firms and retailers, wouldn’t it?
You see, what Google knows (and many parents don't know) is that a person's city of birth and year of birth can be used to make a statistical guess about the first five digits of his/her social security number.
“Part of the security problem lies with the method used to assign SSNs. The researchers note that only four digits of the nine digit SSN are random. The first three digits are called the Area Number (AN) and the next two are the Group Number (GN). ANs are allocated to specific states and GNs to specific birth years. Given the date of birth and place of birth, researchers need only guess at the final four digits.” - Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross Carnegie Mellon University.
So…. with the form you see above, you’ve just given Google your child’s Social Security Number. They don’t even have to guess. And you were worried about computer security?
So: If you can obtain those last four SSN digits explicitly, you've unlocked countless troves of personal information from someone who didn't even understand that such a disclosure was happening. This kind of data can be linked with other databases to target advertising, but Google wouldn’t do that, surely? Faster than a long tailed tom cat in a room full of rockers, I say.
It's worth many times more than what Google will spend on prizes (each State Finalist gets a T-shirt! The winner gets a Wacom tablet! Wow!). Maybe the TShirt should look like this?
To be strictly fair, Google hasn’t disclosed any such plan, nor has evidence surfaced exposing one. The entry form is one half page followed by five pages of legal mumbo-jumbo in (you guessed it) small print.
Google could have plans to just throw the data away, right? Maybe “the last 4” was inadvertently added to the competition form? There are all sorts of innocent and inconceivable explanations for this, aren’t there? So why (from their FAQ) is “Doodle 4 Google is still designed to work with schools across the nation (public, private and home schools).” Why not schools outside the USA? Maybe because those kids have no “last four”?
So, one question keeps haunting me: “Why the hell does Google need the “last four”?”
Additional links:
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/secu/article.php/3828716/Social-Security-Numbers-Easy-to-Hack.htm
http://www.google.com/doodle4google/faqs.html
That is just no good. Talk about a blow below the belt.
Best regards,Steven.
Reminds me of the tobacco companies targeting kids.
Except, you know, it tells you right in the FAQ what it needs it for:
Social Security number is one easy way to verify citizenship.
In addition, the "last 4" of the social security number is probably THE most common way to store information in the database. Given the high volume of expected entrants with the same last/first names, DOB and SSN are the "go to" numbers to make sure you've got the right person.
There's absolutely nothing malicious about wanting the last 4 digits, it's a very common record-keeping procedure.
In addition, you are wrong, while the first 3 digits are associated with the place or residence when you apply for the card (not necessarily place of birth!), the 2 middle digits have absolutely no relation to age:
What The Numbers Mean
The nine-digit Social Security number is divided into three parts. The first three numbers generally indicate the state of residence at the time a person applies for his or her first card. Originally, the lowest numbers were assigned to the New England states, and the numbers grew progressively higher in the South and West. However, in recent years, this geographical relationship has been disrupted somewhat by the need to allocate numbers out of sequence to certain growing and populous states. The middle two digits of a Social Security number have no special significance, but merely serve to break the numbers into blocks of convenient size. The last four characters represent a straight numerical progression of assigned numbers.
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/gvb09.htm
In short, get your tin foil hat off Google has more on these kids from their online searches and visited websites than they could ever get from having the last 4 digits of their SSNs.
Nope.
In short, no personal attacks. The OP was carefully researched, and the Social Security number info as well:
Meaning no disrespect Annatar11 but if you believe Google does not have ulterior motives in this think again. Google has their grubby little fingers in many a cookie jar. Don't think so then 'google' google and see for yourself.
I have had a gmail account for over 5 years, albeit I turned off the search monitoring (apparently). I guess whenever a person or group gets too much power, they tend to abuse it, even if it doesn't come out (read: if it doesn't become obvious) in the early days.
Google has only one interest...data aquisition, nothing else.
They will provide any service... for the sole purpose of information gathering...that is of interest to advertisers to whom they will sell.
Once upon a time there were MANY search engines. These days even their name has entered common vernacular.
People 'should' have been leery with the advent [and its marketing] of Gmail.
Why, pray tell, was Google freely "giving" people web storage, etc.?
Why did they use 'gifting' to ensure the take-up was VIRAL?
There's exactly ZERO altruism associated with Google.
Wasnt there supposed to be some sort of some clause in some law somewhere that specificly disallowes the use of one's social security number for identification purposes? *whistles*
Anyway, it doenst make google evil, it just means that google is doing the same thing everyone else does. but that doesnt make it right.
As we discussed, Steven... no reason to ditch your gMail. I believe all the bigboys (MS, Google, etc.) datamine your searches, etc. Bing has even mimicked Google on it's search engine... so, it is what it is, and live with it.
Just know them as best you can. I'm not a Google hater. It's their business, and they're very good at it. I just try to keep them at arm's length as best I can.
I believe that... and believe there's exactly zero altruism with any of them: From the start. They're all in it for the money. No love/passion involved.
So what people/groups are in it for the love/passion? Ordinary people? Privately held companies that haven't got too big?
Skinners
What do you think about Stardock?
What concerns me most is the potential of these soc sec numbers being sold to foriegn companies that may be associated or under the thumb of their government's espionage department. Sounds like a good way for them to give the shaft to the tax system of an already ailing superpower.
Nice.
The OP was carefully researched, and the Social Security number info as well:
That's great, but do you trust a random researcher or an actual publication from the Social Security Administration? If you actually click the link I provided, you would see:
SSA Publication No. 05-10002
Right up top.
Yep.
Non-citizens/non-legal residents are issued a special card, so the SSA absolutely tracks this with the social security number. This is why when you apply for a job, you need to have your SS card so HR can verify your citizenship/employment eligibility status.
I think you need to ease off your own meds if you think that's a personal attack Doc.
The "random researchers" are from Carnegie-Mellon. That's pretty reputable. They are peer reviewed, as well. I do trust what they wrote, Annatar11.
I did read the publication. Honestly? From what I know? I trust the SSA very little if at all.
Google has always been open about what they store and how they store it and how it will be used.
People that use any search engine (and many other web sites) trade data for services.
If you don't think the trade is fair, don't use the service.
But . . don't think that there is some big conspiracy to steal your data and use it maliciously. It will be used to profit whoever is offering the service . . . the same as it's always been.
Will the last four digits of a SSN profit Google? I really don't see how. It's not the type of data that they can sell or use. The other pieces of information on that form are far more useful for marketing purposes and their business is marketing/advertising.
Zu...it's not a 'big conspiracy' at all...it's a Business Model.
Google wants to be the biggest player [and they are] so [again with the 1984] Big Brother IS watching....
Let's see them grow a pair and NOT bow down to pressure from China to alter reality.
Let's see truth outweigh profit.
That'd be nice.
Are they really "open and honest"? Really? I doubt they share their usage plans openly. Maybe about some things, bu about all?
"Big conspiracy"? No. "Business plan"? Yes. "Maliciously"? Well, who's to decide what that really means? Profit in and of itself is not "malicious". If it means "to my detriment"? Perhaps. Once they've got it, well what they'll do now and in 5 years are different. Who knows...that's a far cry from "For my good", though, isn't it? People have different standrds for that.
By generating that person's SSN. That is marketable, commercially. Information is simply that. You can see how it can be deduced by:
"You see, what Google knows (and many parents don't know) is that a person's city of birth and year of birth can be used to make a statistical guess about the first five digits of his/her social security number.
“Part of the security problem lies with the method used to assign SSNs. The researchers note that only four digits of the nine digit SSN are random. The first three digits are called the Area Number (AN) and the next two are the Group Number (GN). ANs are allocated to specific states and GNs to specific birth years. Given the date of birth and place of birth, researchers need only guess at the final four digits.”
See?
And if that weren't, yours certainly is.
As to being open and honest about what they collect . . http://www.google.com/privacy/privacy-policy.html It seems pretty clear. They collect everything you send them .. and they use it to make their business.
I find the slant of the original post interesting though . . not really news, an opinion piece with research. Fair and balanced? I think not.
Yah. You should see the Private Message he sent me. I can't show you, because it's a Private Message. But it seemed a bit whiny. (that's an opinion doc, not a personal attack) He really took offense to my posting a link to this topic while he was working up his well researched and very informative post, which I had no idea he was doing. And then he sent the Private Message when I jokingly posted "FIRST! " (see that smiley, that was meant to be a joking smiley doc). But whatever, you're a MOD and can do and say whatever the frak you want.
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