Google + invite lands man in jail

[wrightway]

http://gma.yahoo.com/man-jailed-gmail-invite-ex-girlfriend-111716107--abc-news-topstories.html

In what one expert on Internet privacy calls "a worst-case scenario," a Massachusetts man was jailed for sending his ex-girlfriend (who had a restraining order against him) an email invitation to join Google+.

But Thomas Gagnon contends he didn't send it; Google did, without his knowledge or consent.

When his ex-girlfriend received the invitation, according to the Salem News, she went to the police, complaining Gagnon had violated the restraining order by sending her the email. Police agreed and arrested him, the News reported. He was jailed then released on $500 bail.

Well, this is going to be a lovely little shitstorm. Google + does actually send out automated invites. And getting people out of your gmail system is an oddly hard thing to do. I have people on my contacts I have no interest of ever talking to again, but google isn't let me completely erase them for some reason, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out they received invites auto generated from my account. That noted, I really don't think the guy needed to be arrested if all it was was a an automated invite. All this is doing is setting him up as some poor persecuted hero for the MRAs.

Edit:

Yup. They've started in on it.

http://www.avoiceformen.com/allnews/man-jailed-after-google-sends-automated-message-to-ex/

“You’re under arrest because a service you don’t control sent a message that you didn’t ask for and that breaks a restraining order that you didn’t know about”.

When thought crimes just aren’t oppressive enough, welcome to the world of, well what? What do you call such a thing? It looks like society is “progressing” so quickly that we are committing crimes that we cant even name yet.

I need Feminism because having men arrested for no reason is fun.

[QueenofHearts]

I don't really see a problem. If the police did nothing and he actually sent it, then people would throw a bitch fit. Especially, if the girlfriend got hurt by him. So, we can't blame the police.

The girl had no way of knowing whether he sent it or not, so can't blame her.

Guy is a scumbag, otherwise he wouldn't have the restraining order against him. But the charge against him will be dropped. He could also have a suit against google+ to recoup that $500.

It will work itself out.

[kefkaownsall]

moral is google needs to stop getting people to use google+ NO ONE IS GOING TO

[RavynousHunter]

No, the moral is that Google needs to be less aggressive in their promotion of Google+, and make its features less aggressive as a result.

[Rime]

That would be nice, but it appears they're bent on getting everyone to use it, thinking that if you're forced to police another page (which, of course, you used your real name) you'll realize how much potential it has and that it will explode in popularity to be greater than Facebook.

I found after using it, it's worse than Xanga.  It's not like I had a choice, I'm not even allowed to make a comment in my own channel without one.  And so, without further ado, something that sums up my thoughts on the subject perfectly.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTq8TrA3hb4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTq8TrA3hb4</a>

[Ultimate Paragon]

This is gonna cause a scandal...

[Barbarella]

This is why I switched to Bing/Outlook. Google's getting stupid & they're practically FORCING Google+ on people. Google has everything interconnected to the point where if you don't get one thing, other things wont work. You NEED Gmail & Google+ for access to all YouTube services, for example. Plus stuff won't work if you don't supply a cell-phone number. Nothing is optional! Google USED to be cool & Progressive but now the some totalitarian butt-in-skis who what to know everything! It's annoying!

I wish there was a way to either use Google search, alone....Gmail alone....YouTube alone....etc. I liked the Search/Gmail/YouTube but I did NOT....WANT....GOOGLE FRAGGING PLUS!!!!

These dorks aren't satisfied with just having a neat search engine, email service & such, they're constantly tweaking & adding stuff that is not only unnecessary but poorly designed. These folks have literally no understanding of human nature or proper promotion.

Google's apparently run by pod people from Planet Nudzork or something!

[Ironchew]

These dorks aren't satisfied with just having a neat search engine, email service & such, they're constantly tweaking & adding stuff that is not only unnecessary but poorly designed. These folks have literally no understanding of human nature or proper promotion.

Google's apparently run by pod people from Planet Nudzork or something!

Sounds like a reasonable criticism of the corporate "Not Invented Here" paradigm...

This is why I switched to Bing/Outlook.

Pot, meet kettle.

[Barbarella]

These dorks aren't satisfied with just having a neat search engine, email service & such, they're constantly tweaking & adding stuff that is not only unnecessary but poorly designed. These folks have literally no understanding of human nature or proper promotion.

Google's apparently run by pod people from Planet Nudzork or something!

Sounds like a reasonable criticism of the corporate "Not Invented Here" paradigm...

This is why I switched to Bing/Outlook.

Pot, meet kettle.

About the later, at least they're not epic about it. Perhaps it's a bad comparison but so far, I'm rather pleased. At least they have better image searches & filter levels.

[Ironchew]

About the later, at least they're not epic about it.

Microsoft is the gold standard of unwanted integration across disparate applications. Integration with the internals of the operating system is especially notorious (i.e. Windows XP and IE6) and was the biggest reason why Windows historically had such lousy defenses against malware.

Google seems to be trying their damndest to annoy us online, but Microsoft has been playing this game far longer.

[Barbarella]

About the later, at least they're not epic about it.

Microsoft is the gold standard of unwanted integration across disparate applications. Integration with the internals of the operating system is especially notorious (i.e. Windows XP and IE6) and was the biggest reason why Windows historically had such lousy defenses against malware.

Google seems to be trying their damndest to annoy us online, but Microsoft has been playing this game far longer.

Yes, but so far, I'm pleased with it & it's not forcing me to take up new applications.

[Art Vandelay]

For me, that mandatory Google+ account is doing absolutely nothing of note, good or bad. It sits there being totally ignored by myself and others and does nothing except take up server space. Maybe there's something I'm missing, but that seems actually worse for Google than me simply not using Google+ in the first place. It's an entirely worthless webpage that they have to pay to maintain and that's not generating any ad revenue for them and collecting any data for them to sell. Maybe they thought that I and many others would actually use it for social networking after being forced to sign up, in which case they're simply fucking stupid because "it's there" is hardly a compelling reason to devote time to something I've absolutely 0 interest in using.

[WarGoatHK417]

No, the moral is that Google needs to be less aggressive in their promotion of Google+, and make its features less aggressive as a result.

This is icing on the cake, given that they seem to be happy with ruining Youtube's comment section in so many ways.  The only thing that accomplished was that I don't comment there anymore.  How anyone likes this is beyond me.

[rageaholic]

As if we needed any more reasons to hate google +?

They can take their "new and improved" youtube and shove it where the sun don't shine. 

[Neith]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymkA1N3oFwg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymkA1N3oFwg</a>