Google Fixes Some Privacy Issues On Google Plus Games! (we had a little to do with this)

As you followers of me on plus may know we here at Androidian Revolution took our complaints about the permissions on Google plus games. I was able to discuss this in a public thread HERE with the Google engineers in a constructive way. Now they have come out and actually kept their promises to us from the  thread. Lead Product Manager of Google Games and Mobile Punit Soni told me:

Supporting multiple modes in games/systems is complex and not that trivial. However, Its a worthy goal and your feedback is heard. We have just started and its early days still. We are committed to being transparent and ensuring our user's happiness and privacy.

And boy did he keep his word. Today The following changes were made to the way games work on Google Plus.

Some of you have asked about revoking permissions from a game that you don’t want to play anymore. It’s now a little easier to do this.


- Click on the menu at the bottom-left of screen where you are playing the game
- Clicking on “Manage permissions” takes you to where you can revoke access


We hope this simple change makes you feel more in control while playing games.
Please keep telling us what you want from Google+ games, and expect us to keep making playing on Google+ even better!

I just wish Google had given me a little credit for putting the issue up front where it belonged but if you check the thread I linked out and are article here. You will see what I mean. Guys we did it and this again is another piece of evidence that we can change stuff around here and we should when it doesn't meet our needs and violates are basic right to privacy. The Internet can be both open and safe and making this case is one of the primary purposes of Androidian Revolution. Now on to the next fight.

Kidromulous
Editor in Chief
AndroREV

Games Have Hit, But Wait A Sec People. Are You Paying Attention....?

I'm Going To Let You Finish.....

Okay I hate to rain on everyone's parade here but I just wanted to tell you who have never studied fallacies and rhetorical arguments and etc to watch out for the red herring effect. Case in point is facebook who has done a number on people's privacy by getting to them to agree to playing a game or using some other software. Pay close attention to what you are doing when you accept these license agreements and etc. Case in point A friend of mine shared this with me cause I have been editing and have not had a moment to look at it for myself. Here is the Permission list for Bejeweled Blitz Beta:

View basic information about your account
View your name, public profile URL, and photo
View your gender and birthdate
View your country, language, and timezone
View your email address
View the email address associated with your account
View a list of people from your circles, ordered based on your interactions with them across Google
View a list of people from your circles that you may want to engage with
The list is ordered based on your interactions with these people across Google
View public profile information for these people


Now that should make you really pause and think. Why is all of this necessary for me to enjoy games with my friends? What the hell are you even doing with all of this? Warning people think twice cause this is the red herring effect if I ever seen it. I give you something shiny and nice and while you enjoy its beauty I go in your back pocket and take your wallet. Hmm maybe I don't need Google Plus to play games on second thought. 

Games Have Hit Google Plus.... I Don't Know Whether To Laugh Or Cry

What is the thing you hate the most about Facebook. The horrible theme?, The Over abundance of trolls?, The annoying interface?, The confusing changes they make to the news feed?, The Perpetual beta that it seems to be?.... How about games all over your feed? That latter is the one of the things I hate the most about Facebook and Zuck and company don't care. They have made a pretty penny with them and they aren't going to stop their unholy alliance with the likes of Zynga any time soon. So far Google Plus has been a breath of fresh air in that regard. Dah well... thats over. Today Google will roll out games on our beloved social network. Google totally intends to not make games an annoyance and I love this. Below I have included a blurb from their blog post that sort of explains it all but before we get to that let me share with you some of the games that will be available.

So Good folks lets see how it goes and please tell me exactly how you feel about the subject. It seems that Google will stay out of our way with the games. Oh yeah and here's the promised blurb from a blog post on the subject:


"When you’re ready to play, the Games page is waiting—click the games button at the top of your stream. You can see the latest game updates from your circles, browse the invites you’ve received and check out games that people you know have played recently. The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear. So you can comfortably share your latest high score—your circles will only see the updates when they’re interested in playing games too.
If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them. Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about."

So there it is guys. I will be back later with more goods.... Excelsior