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If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

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Re: If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

#121

Post by coldtea »

incepted wrote: post #7

This is the usual privacy hysteria knee-jerk reaction: "Watch out, the big companies are going to get data on you!". And people are going to react exactly like they've done before: if the service is worth it, they'll be happy to trade a few bits of privacy about themselves in exchange for the benefits. Also, I'm not sure the author of this piece understands what encryption is about since he laments that most people d…

>This is the usual privacy hysteria knee-jerk reaction: "Watch out, the big companies are going to get data on you!".

Whether you care about privacy or not, I don't see anything "hysteric" about it. Indeed, big companies ARE going to get data on you (and they already have too many).

That said, not caring about privacy seems to me a first world privilege. And only because most people are so boring. Sure, if all you do is work, sleep, buy stuff from Amazon, Whole foods and Costco, go for the occasional holiday, watch some Netflix, rinse and repeat, who even cares if the government has data on you?

Try being an activist of any kind however (even someone like MLK who had tons of enemies at the local and big government level, and volumes of FBI files), rubbing the police the wrong way (e.g. being in some group against police violence etc), or even a regular citizen with some democratic views in any place from Egypt to several shady Latin American "democracies", and see what happens...

>Also, I'm not sure the author of this piece understands what encryption is about since he laments that most people don't search with https on. Er... what? If you want Google to search something on your behalf, they have to be able to read the words you type. Encrypting these words so Google can't read them would be comically useless.

No, but encrypting these words so third parties can't read them would be extremely important (that said, Google has https on by default IIRC).

Re: If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

#122

Post by coldtea »

vthallam wrote: post #98
pacala wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course you have to send Google search queries. Of course it would be a whole lot more elegant on their part to have a simple SLA: "We use the search queries for the express purpose of answering your queries. We do not hold on your personal information for more than XX minutes, neither in personalized nor in aggregated form." It's not that hard, a 30 people organization can pull it off, https://duckduckgo.com/about…

And in this case, what do you think would be the motivation of companies like Google who uses data to monetize for any innovation and provide better service? Companies have to sustain and the only way to be sustainable at that scale as Google is to monetize using the data. You can always go incognito.

>And in this case, what do you think would be the motivation of companies like Google who uses data to monetize for any innovation and provide better service? Companies have to sustain and the only way to be sustainable at that scale as Google is to monetize using the data.

How about we don't allow companies to monetize any other way than directly? E.g. by having paying customers for their services?

Killing all ad-supported BS will make the internet so much better.

Re: If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

#123

Post by pessimizer »

adrianlmm wrote: post #27
oceanswave wrote: post #17

I pay cash for all my transactions. I don't own a car because I fear that the registration systems for licensing and taxes will gather information about me and we know that those government data systems are most vulnerable to attack. When I travel, it's by bus only - requiring a form of identification at the airport is a front to government spying. Unfortunately, the bus systems are starting to require too much infor…

I just don't use Google products.

From what I hear, that's akin to wearing a tinfoil hat, living in a hole in the woods, or imagining that there's a secret room somewhere that all internet traffic is being routed through that's operated by an American intelligence agency.

Re: If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

#124

Post by coldtea »

oceanswave wrote: post #17

I pay cash for all my transactions. I don't own a car because I fear that the registration systems for licensing and taxes will gather information about me and we know that those government data systems are most vulnerable to attack. When I travel, it's by bus only - requiring a form of identification at the airport is a front to government spying. Unfortunately, the bus systems are starting to require too much infor…

Privacy is one thing, this is another.

If you avoid all that stuff (social interaction, talking to others, owning a car, renting an apartment, traveling by plane, etc) there must be a justification so that what you get out of avoiding it is more important than what you miss not doing them.

What that would that be in this case?

It doesn't sound like it's freedom.

Plus, if your attitude is "unfortunately, I'm still breathing", then how is owing a car or flying by plane or talking to another any worse than that?

Except if this all is Poe's law. In which case, this is a "slippery slope" fallacy which misses the whole point. In which case, if one doesn't have experience with something like a dictatorship, like my country and many others had, it's easy to snark such BS about privacy.

Re: If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

#125

Post by nuggien »

oceanswave wrote: post #17

I pay cash for all my transactions. I don't own a car because I fear that the registration systems for licensing and taxes will gather information about me and we know that those government data systems are most vulnerable to attack. When I travel, it's by bus only - requiring a form of identification at the airport is a front to government spying. Unfortunately, the bus systems are starting to require too much infor…

I see you Richard Stallman.

Re: If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

#126

Post by pmontra »

fixermark wrote: post #57
pmontra wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could have your server doing the search and aggregation job Google has centralized. Google could have sold those servers as home appliances, each of them spidering only those parts of the world our phones know we care about or we will. Travel next week to Berlin? Start downloading maps and transit schedules for there. I'm sure that it could be engineered to be as effective as what we have now. A centralized searc…

Why would you bet on the latter? https://www.google.com/work/search/products/gsa.html

I was thinking not about search but about a Google Now appliance running at home. My bet is that the general mindset at Google is about centralization. I can be wrong. But knowing everything everybody does is easy to convert into money.

Re: If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

#128

Post by Jordrok »

nacs wrote: post #95
PaulHoule wrote: post #81

I am not so worried about it. I think Google Allo will get about as many users as Google Plus.

I think you're underestimating the amount of "integration" Google will do with this product to make it the default everywhere. Google Plus started being integrated into the search results, Picasa, Youtube comments, Android app reviews, and every other place they could think of, basically making it the default Google authentication. They eventually de-integrated Plus after tons of user complaints (and possibly seeing…

You're right, but I would argue that the insane amount of over-integration was one of the main reasons that Plus failed. For once, here's to hoping that history will repeat itself.

Re: If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

#129

Post by TimMeade »

fixermark wrote: post #52

"Let that sink in for a moment: The selling point of this app is that Google will read your messages, for your convenience." If that's the author's objection, it's like the author never heard of Gmail. https://developers.google.com/schemas/tutorials/google-now-c...

Google voice? How do you think they tuned their voice recognition and their translations? Listening to all those free phone calls.

Re: If you care about privacy, you should not use Google Allo

#130

Post by adrianlmm »

pessimizer wrote: post #123
adrianlmm wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't use Google products.

From what I hear, that's akin to wearing a tinfoil hat, living in a hole in the woods, or imagining that there's a secret room somewhere that all internet traffic is being routed through that's operated by an American intelligence agency.

Well, I'm not a Google fan boy.
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