Scary Feedburner Message At Login
I normally never have to log into feedburner cause I use the “remember me” which automatically logs me in. I was using my wifes computer today though and got this at the login screen. I am guessing a lot of you also use the “remember me” so in case you have not seen it:
NOTE: Service of FeedBurner publisher accounts will not be interrupted as a result of the acquisition by Google. You will have a 14-day interim period ending June 15, 2007 to opt-out of allowing Google to service your account. If you take no action by June 15, 2007, the rights to your data will transfer from FeedBurner to Google. Opting out will terminate your user agreement with FeedBurner, permanently delete your FeedBurner account, feeds, and all related statistical data and history, and prevent the transfer of your data rights to Google. To opt-out, contact us via accountx@feedburner.com, provide your FeedBurner account Username, and request to have your FeedBurner account deleted. We will contact you at your registered email address to confirm your deletion request before completing it.
This sounds kind of harsh doesn’t it? Its like Google is getting your stuff and if you don’t like it YOU AND YOUR FEEDS ARE DEAD PUNK. I am sure for legal reasons they have to word it the way it does you would just think there would be a nicer, gentler, way to say “owned”…
UPDATE:
Rick Klau Former VP of Feedburner (now with Google) emailed me and also responded in the comments below:
Didn’t intend for it to sound scary, we were going more for clarity and no ambiguity. And as a (non-practicing) lawyer, I can tell you that loosy-goosey isn’t a popular class in law school.
Bottom line, this is just an indication that as a legal matter, “FeedBurner, Inc.” is now owned/operated by Google, Inc… so, strictly speaking, the privacy policy is now between you and Google. We felt it best to give everyone a period of time to decide whether that’s what they wanted, rather than make it immediate on the day the acquisition closed.Let me know if you have any other questions.
–Rick Klau
Google (former VP, publisher services, FeedBurner)
Thanks Rick!
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Sounds like CYA stuff. Since everything is either going to Google or going away, I am not sure there is a nice way to tell people do-or-die.
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Yeah I just saw that and was taken aback by it.
I hope it’s not a sign of what’s to come
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Gotta love it. Google just keeps eating things up more and more.
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Yeah, that was definitely a very *corporate* message compared to the loosy goosy language feedburner has always used.
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Maybe their legal team is too busy with lawsuits to word it in a “nicer” way?
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That is pretty scary sounding. What I am surprised by is the fact that it doesn’t show in the account or something when you have a remember me cookie set. Sounds like they dropped the ball on that one. All that legal-ese and not everyone will see it? For significant blogs like Shoemoney, that could be an issue.
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I don’t think any lawyer would write that. Maybe it was a law student, but it sounds to me like it was written by someone who was splicing together a legal memo.
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Nor is there a “nicer and gentler” way to speak in googlese. IE: “your adsense account has been disabled because your brother’s girlfriend’s father’s boss’ son’s BFF’s account has shown invalid click activity and you are associated by less than seven degrees of seperation”.
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Google = new NSA
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and that is what scares me. One thing which hasnt been considered. The internet is a different beast when you discuss things such as monopoly. Google is way too big and has way to large an influence on things IMO. However, it doesnt seem to meet the criteria to be considered a monopoly legally. This is partly because the definition of monopoly was written pre internet.
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All your feeds are belong to google
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I was actually going to sign up today but I won’t even bother. I don’t have time for this kind of stuff.
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at first reading the note, led me to think that i need to email feedburner that I want to continue with their service and failure to contact feedburner will led to deletion of my account.
well, maybe i was just an idiot….
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But others at least manage to offer a data backup…
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I always knew they had a master plan to own our feeds! Haha.
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I wonder how many people are going to opt out of it? For that matter, I trust google more with feeds than feedburner so I dont know why anyone would…
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Well despite the scary message, having feedburner data incorporated into other G stuff like Analytics might be a very cool feature.
And I WILL let Google SERVICE my account. (#):D
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I find it sad that time had to actually be wasted on such drivel. But would see it as a quick response to cover their butts for all the legal vultures who are just waiting to pounce on the financial train of opportunity.
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What else can they say I guess? I appreciate them telling it like it is. I logged in earlier to the same message and had a bit of a scare as well though - Google is getting *too* big ;).
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Hey, it could be worse, what do you think eBay is going to do with all the user data from StumbleUpon users now that they’ve bought them up…Get ready for a crapload of eBay scams and spam if you use SU I guess.
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Yes, harsh.
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Didn’t intend for it to sound scary, we were going more for clarity and no ambiguity. And as a (non-practicing) lawyer, I can tell you that loosy-goosey isn’t a popular class in law school.
Bottom line, this is just an indication that as a legal matter, “FeedBurner, Inc.” is now owned/operated by Google, Inc… so, strictly speaking, the privacy policy is now between you and Google. We felt it best to give everyone a period of time to decide whether that’s what they wanted, rather than make it immediate on the day the acquisition closed.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
–Rick Klau
Google (former VP, publisher services, FeedBurner)
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It’s funny, I was just creating a new feedburner feed the other day and saw this on login. Even though google already pwns me with gmail, analytics, adsense, sitemaps, apps, my search habits, and who knows what else - the message still kinda (1984 big brother) freaked me out…
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It is a sign… Google Will buy up all Websites! *L*
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Hey, at least they’re giving you a chance to opt out! Yes, it definitely kind of freaks you out that after the feedburner acquisition the big G will have access to your data–that’s specifically why I don’t use Google Analytics or other web tracking stuff on the sites I really care about.
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Personally, I think it’s great that the Feedburner folks recognized not everyone would be happy with Google seeing their data, and provided a way to opt out. Very classy.
Google already sees so much of my data that one more bit won’t hurt.
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It didn’t sound that harsh. Google is taking over the world and all the data that’s in it.
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It does come off as very do-or-die, I agree. But I guess they had to write it that way so there wasn’t any confusion. So far people are getting it: the deadline, the option to continue with Google, etc. To them, maybe that’s all that matters — to get the information through with zero ambiguity.
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Kinda scary that the opt out requires nothing more than an e-mail with your username. Seems like an invitation to mess with people by opting out on their behalf.
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This is nutz! Google,is running over the entire Internet. I am miffed about what their next move is going to be.
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Resistance is futile…
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The good thing about offering a data backup is the perceived value of that particular service is high and the actual cost is very low.
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Guess I was wrong! I don’t know what law school they went to
- but they would have gotten destroyed if they turned that into one of my legal writing classes.
And I thought that no lawyer would start out a paragraph about opt-out rights with a sentence that your service will not be interrupted. Shows you what I know!
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Is he kidding? loosy-goosey is a required course in law school LOL
Yeha, resistance is futile.
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I can confirm. I’m in law school. They don’t offer that class. (Although I might like to take it!)
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It is scary, but sounds more honest than most things you read.
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Yes, I was also scared at first, it looked like man, what’s going on, I think everybody got a bit confused at first…
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I’ve been using Feedburner for more than two years now. The unfortunate thing about this is that there is no simple way to redirect your feed away from the feeds.feedburner.com url without totally losing all of your subscribers. I intend to keep my feed with them, but I don’t feel like I have a whole lot of options either..
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I think they have to give you the option to opt out since all of your data is being transferred to Google..
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When you’re talking about the personal information and data of thousands of people, I find it sad to consider what they did to be “drivel”..
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I agree that if they could somehow integrate it into Analytics that it could make for some very cool features..
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I’ve been wondering about that for a while now. What could possibly be their next great buy-out project…
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heh i kinda saw this coming, sorry for not commenting earlier, work has been killing me :p
Google definitely aquired feedburner for its huge ass db of info ofcourse why else would it
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At least they will clean their database of unused stuff.
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