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Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

nautil.us

241–250 of 360 posts

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#242

Disclaimer: I work for Google and these views are only my opinion, etc. From my perspective, Google's goals are aligned with improving the world by offering information services. Search, Gmail, Maps, Translate, basically all of the Other Bets, etc.--it's easy to imagine that the people behind them are more concerned with impact on the world than on generating profit or consolidating Google's power. To me, Facebook ha…

I think one of the key points that has come out of the discussions in the last year or so is that the general public cannot trust Google or Facebook or any organization to keep its best interest at heart. Their needs to be better targeted government regulation that is designed by a impartial third-party and serves the best interests of general public. The worst thing we could get out of the computer revolution is the majority of the world becoming scapegoats for a few people living in Bay Area.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Google’s privacy policy explicitly allows them to use queries for advertising So does Bing. Finally, as described in the Display of Advertising section of this document, we may use search query data for the purpose of personalizing the ads we display to you as you use our services or those of our advertising partners. https://www.docracy.com/0fap0koedur/bing-com-privacy-policy-... >Why are you trying to paint Micros…

Oh my God, why are you acting like you are disagreeing with me when you are now saying exactly what my original comment said? "Unlike Google, Microsoft tracks and profiles you online via their search engine and through all of the "telemetry" Windows sends back to them." This is your original comment. Do you see how you are disagreeing with yourself now? "So does Bing." "Google’s privacy policy explicitly allows them…

Sorry, I misinterpreted what you were saying. My intent was to imply that if you're going to wrangle Google into the Facebook clusterfuck then you better put the spotlight on other companies that have done more nefarious shit than Google.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No Maps Here Maps or OpenStreetMap > No Search I’ve switched to a mix of Qwant and DuckDuckGo, depending on question > No GMail I’ve been self-hosting all my mail for 4 years now, works fine thanks to simple solutions such as this tutorial https://workaround.org/ispmail > No YouTube This is the largest issue, but most of what I consume is either music or streams, and most of the streams are also on twitch, and the…

Yes, I can live without Google Map, Google Search, GMail, Photos, but Youtube is unavoidable. For me, Youtube is more than just music or cute videos. I learn programming, mathematics, physics a lot from Youtube. :(

It's still not getting completely away from Google, and they could probably still track you through IP, but I've been really happy with the NewPipe client for Android; it's attempting to provide all the features of browsing without falling back on any official API and certainly without needing an account. There are a few features that aren't out yet (most notably comments, notifications, and YT-user playlists, though it can play the latter if you get the link through another browser) but it gives you an offline subscription list and in my opinion is more comfortable to use than the official app.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#245
I find it amazing that Chollet even tries to argue "There’s only one company where the product is an opaque algorithmic newsfeed, that has been running large-scale mood/opinion manipulation experiments..." when Google's ranking algorithm is so infamously fickle, and especially when its per-user bubbling is an open secret and even obliquely touted as a feature.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#246
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on. It’s getting kind of ridiculous how many Google employees are showing up in these discussions saying “oh, if you work at Facebook, you’re horrible! but people at Google are really trying to make the world a better place.” I turned down a job offer from Facebook because after a lot of thought I decided I couldn’t work at such a company. I didn’t even apply to Google because Google’s attitude towards privacy a…

You keep repeating this falsehood: > Does the average person with an Android phone really know their location is being uploaded minute by minute to Google? It doesn't seem like you have any idea how Google actually captures user's location data. Not only does Google give you the full ability to control and delete your location data [1] but the data collection is not on by default (though applications like Maps will p…

You are giving Google way too much credit here.

Google collects your location by default. I know so because I bought an Android phone just this month. Here is the setup screen, shown with default settings. [1]

Google encourages developers to use the Play Services SDK for location services. This means that it is impossible to provide your location to just one app (say, Lyft) without also providing it to Google. [2]

You can disable location services and Google will still find ways to monitor your location. For example, if you use gmail, Google will read any flight and hotel confirmations emails. It does this by default. [3] Install Google Trips and it will show you a list of every city you've been in.

They collect your location so much they even find ways to do it by accident. [4]

> I can't think of any other company that goes to such great lengths to protect user data as much as Goog does

Better protection is to not collect it in the first place.

For example, Apple Maps doesn't have a sign-in, and its server requests are associated with randomized rotating IDs, not your user account. Directions are broken up into multiple segments with different identifiers so that Apple can't reconstruct your trip.

> Certainly you'll never see anything like private employees tracking their spouses using Google's data

Old but it happened. [5]

[1] https://imgur.com/a/XOY7g

[2] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/12/turn_off_location_se...

[3] https://imgur.com/a/c7xeF

[4] https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locatio...

[5] http://gawker.com/5637234/gcreep-google-engineer-stalked-tee...

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#247
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's idea of improving the world is hardly apolitical. Consider the YouTube rule changes on firearms -- whether or not they improve the world is going to depend on your views, but Google is surely throwing its weight around in a political way.

Only in the US can actions regarding firearms be considered a political move. (Most of) Rest of the world sees it as a safety issue and is happy to give away their firearms.

The U.S. has a somewhat different take from much of the world on several civil liberties issues, including freedom of speech and freedom of religion. As an American I'm quite proud of that fact.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#248
I doubt all fault lies with Zuckerberg here. Because he is doing what the system rewards, maximizing investor wealth. And that means companies will do everything to profit, and only apologize if caught. Facebook won't have cared till 2025 if they were not caught. Same with Google may be what they are doing, and they are more careful than Google in getting caught.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On https sites there's not a lot ISPs can track without breaking encryption. With shared IPs they may not even know the domain for certain (although as IPv6 takes off it will be easier to map IP to domain).

They can make a fair guess at which websites you're accessing. A lot of websites that are related to your particular interests aren't behind shared IP addresses these days. Consider this: * Build a list of domains you're interested in. There's fun community build blocking lists that can help you, if you need it. * Periodically resolve every domain. Odds are if you're an ISP your servers already have the records cache…

https://www.slashgeek.net/2017/10/23/online-privacy-doesnt-e...
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