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Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

nautil.us

351–360 of 360 posts

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#351
Depends on what scares you.

If you are worried about your privacy, Google is way scarier. If you don't use Facebook as a social networking site, the data it will have to you is minimal. Can be made even smaller with a couple of extensions available on all browsers.

Now Google owns one of the largest ads network in existence, which means you're being tracked by Google every time you set foot on any site that runs ads. Plus, those that don't probably use Google Analytics, which is also tracking you. Plus, there's Youtube, Google office suite, GMail (even if you don't use it, half of your correspondents do, including many companies so you don't even know by domain name that you send data to Google). Plus, Google Drive, etc. Plus Android, plus Google Play, plus Google Maps, etc. The amount of your private data that is going to Google, if you have any online presence, is stunning. Google is clearly scarier.

Now, if you're worried about these data being used in partisan political battles, the picture is different. As we know by now, both US political tribes has been able to successfully collect and use Facebook social graph data for their purposes. Facebook management remains more or less neutral so far on this question - while the top management undoubtedly belongs to the blue tribe, and, as we've seen, has been glad to provide access to blue tribe campaigns, the red tribe has been able to use the data too. For Google, again, the company is managed by the blue tribe, and openly sides with it at every opportunity, but we don't know anything about how or whether the data is used for political purposes. If you are concerned about the red tribe gaining the same access to private data and control over mega-corporations as the blue one has been enjoying so far, Facebook would be scarier for you, while Google would look pretty safe - even though they have a lot of data, people with correct tribal affiliations are guarding it, so no need to worry there.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not ignoring any facts. You most certainly are. Fact: They are willing to lie to me, and are unwilling to set up their systems in such a way that they don't have to lie to me. Fact: They could also set up the system in such a way that their user's data couldn't be mishandled, but they choose not to. Bonus Fact: They say that they store our data securely, but it's clear that they don't, if they can comply with a…

>And what is factually wrong about that? Because Google states that it will comply with such orders. That means that they do not lie to you about complying with court orders. They tell you in advance that they will comply with them. This isn't a case of Google saying "we will never give your data to the government" and then walking back on that. That would be lying. But they don't do that, they say > We will share pe…

> Because Google states that it will comply with such orders.

So Google saying that it will lie to me means that they aren't going lying to me? OK

> I already explained why 'designing a system so you can't comply with an NSL' is a nonstarter.

No, you gave a poor excuse as to why Google won't do it. That doesn't mean it can't be done. In fact, many other organizations do it all the time. Google simply chooses not to.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And what is factually wrong about that? Because Google states that it will comply with such orders. That means that they do not lie to you about complying with court orders. They tell you in advance that they will comply with them. This isn't a case of Google saying "we will never give your data to the government" and then walking back on that. That would be lying. But they don't do that, they say > We will share pe…

> Because Google states that it will comply with such orders. So Google saying that it will lie to me means that they aren't going lying to me? OK > I already explained why 'designing a system so you can't comply with an NSL' is a nonstarter. No, you gave a poor excuse as to why Google won't do it. That doesn't mean it can't be done. In fact, many other organizations do it all the time. Google simply chooses not to.

Sharing your data in exactly the way they describe in their privacy policy is not lying. You may disagree with the policy, but that doesn't let you redefine words.

And yes there are providers that claim to offer such security. I've already explained why such offerings are unappealing to a large swath of consumers. There are mutually exclusive features that are more appealing to a wider group of consumers.

Are you saying that Google is wrong to respond to consumer demand?

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because Google states that it will comply with such orders. So Google saying that it will lie to me means that they aren't going lying to me? OK > I already explained why 'designing a system so you can't comply with an NSL' is a nonstarter. No, you gave a poor excuse as to why Google won't do it. That doesn't mean it can't be done. In fact, many other organizations do it all the time. Google simply chooses not to.

Sharing your data in exactly the way they describe in their privacy policy is not lying. You may disagree with the policy, but that doesn't let you redefine words. And yes there are providers that claim to offer such security. I've already explained why such offerings are unappealing to a large swath of consumers. There are mutually exclusive features that are more appealing to a wider group of consumers. Are you say…

> Sharing your data in exactly the way they describe in their privacy policy is not lying.

But they refuse to tell me when my data has been compromised. They also say that my data is stored securely, when it is not. That is lying.

> Are you saying that Google is wrong to respond to consumer demand?

Not at all. I'm saying that Google could build their systems in such a way that they can't comply with an NSL. The reasons why they choose not to are irrelevant. It matters that they made that choice. Additionally, there is no reason that they couldn't make it optional.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sharing your data in exactly the way they describe in their privacy policy is not lying. You may disagree with the policy, but that doesn't let you redefine words. And yes there are providers that claim to offer such security. I've already explained why such offerings are unappealing to a large swath of consumers. There are mutually exclusive features that are more appealing to a wider group of consumers. Are you say…

> Sharing your data in exactly the way they describe in their privacy policy is not lying. But they refuse to tell me when my data has been compromised. They also say that my data is stored securely, when it is not. That is lying. > Are you saying that Google is wrong to respond to consumer demand? Not at all. I'm saying that Google could build their systems in such a way that they can't comply with an NSL. The reaso…

>But they refuse to tell me when my data has been compromised.

Yes, they will not share when your data is requested under an NSL until that NSL is lifted. This is stated clearly. Every other service provider is exactly the same way. No matter who your service provider is, they will act in the same way: possibly attempt to fight the order, turn the data over, and not tell you about it until the order is lifted. The only difference is that with certain end to end encrypted services, the data they hand over may not be useful (or it may be, metadata is often valuable and often can't be secured the same way). In other words, your super secure e2e encrypted mail service is still going to have to give user logs to the NSA, and they still won't tell you about it.

So if that's what you consider lying, then literally every company in the US government's jurisdiction will lie to you about when certain data about you has been compromised. In other words, such a definition of "lying" is vacuous, and I'd ask you to give an example of a company either real or theoretical that does what you ask.

>They also say that my data is stored securely, when it is not. That is lying.

This, once again, comes down to your definition of securely. Your threat model is different than the average users'. To the average user, their data is stored securely. (Note: I'm also not sure where this claim is made, feel free to cite the place you're thinking of, I expect that Google is quite explicit in what they mean by "secure").

>Additionally, there is no reason that they couldn't make it optional.

Elsewhere you stated that you believe Google has backdoored your device via Gapps and is secretly transferring your data to their servers despite your having opted out.

In this thread you've stated that you believe that Google " lies about what they do with data, or how they collect it", despite having no evidence of them either lying about what they do with data (as I've demonstrated at this point, they are crystal clear about what they do with data, you just have ideological disagreements with those things), nor any evidence of them lying about what data they collect (you haven't even provided supposed examples of this).

Am I supposed to believe that if Google did provide such a feature, we wouldn't be having this exact same conversation, but with you stating that Google's secure option was secretly backdoored, and they had access to your data anyway?

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The ISPs want a shot at making money off you, too - Do you want your ISP tracking you and selling your private data? Do you think that is the place of an ISP? - Does it bother you you are PAYING your ISP and they are reselling your data as well? - Do you trust Comcast and Verizon and like that you are paying them to sell your data when you just want to use them to get online and are ok with this? I don't think anyo…

Your basic complaint is that it isn't fair that you can't opt out of your ISP pilfering your traffic. But 1) you can use https-only services, 2) you can use a vpn, and 3) you can use a different ISP. You obviously have alternatives, so there's no reason I can see that your ISP being unfair. I care a teeny bit about privacy, but I care a whole lot more about anticompetitive monopolistic practices. IMO, ISPs are absolu…

Dodging questions like these to stay focused on Google only tells great amounts about bias.

- Do you want your ISP tracking you and selling your private data? Do you think that is the place of an ISP?

- Does it bother you you are PAYING your ISP and they are reselling your data as well?

- Do you trust Comcast and Verizon and like that you are paying them to sell your data when you just want to use them to get online and are ok with this?

- Since you have no issue with ISPs selling data that you are paying them to keep private, you would be fine with Google Fiber ISP also doing that?

I am against Google Fiber ISP having access that ISPs just won with bribery over innovation/product offerings that people want. This is about the level of privacy and access ISPs should have not about Google.

- The ISPs already charge too much and little of it is going towards innovations/network advancement, instead they want to be content creators and ad platforms instead of charging more to get to gigabit and beyond. ISPs need to get back to innovating on providing better/faster internet service, what they are are network providers.

- ISPs should not be involved in content/ads/selling private data as that leads to bias and throttling, we need to have a separation of power from ISPs, the network gateway to the internet, and content creators on top of the internet.

When is it a good idea to have content creators own the network outright? All that leads to is bias, preferential treatment and monopolies (furthering them).

We have made immense mistakes in 2017 allowing ISPs to sell your private data, remove privacy protections at the network level AND the removal of net neutrality.

Net neutrality makes the network provider neutral, simple as that. ISPs you pay to get access to the network which is a utility today and to keep your data private, not sell it.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sharing your data in exactly the way they describe in their privacy policy is not lying. But they refuse to tell me when my data has been compromised. They also say that my data is stored securely, when it is not. That is lying. > Are you saying that Google is wrong to respond to consumer demand? Not at all. I'm saying that Google could build their systems in such a way that they can't comply with an NSL. The reaso…

>But they refuse to tell me when my data has been compromised. Yes, they will not share when your data is requested under an NSL until that NSL is lifted. This is stated clearly. Every other service provider is exactly the same way. No matter who your service provider is, they will act in the same way: possibly attempt to fight the order, turn the data over, and not tell you about it until the order is lifted. The on…

To be frank, you are wasting my time by repeatedly ignoring the facts that I've outlined. Providing poor excuses for why these facts are, doesn't negate them as facts. If you'd like to continue discussing these facts, feel free to hit me up on the side, but I'm not going to engage in this thread any more.

Have a good one

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But they refuse to tell me when my data has been compromised. Yes, they will not share when your data is requested under an NSL until that NSL is lifted. This is stated clearly. Every other service provider is exactly the same way. No matter who your service provider is, they will act in the same way: possibly attempt to fight the order, turn the data over, and not tell you about it until the order is lifted. The on…

To be frank, you are wasting my time by repeatedly ignoring the facts that I've outlined. Providing poor excuses for why these facts are, doesn't negate them as facts. If you'd like to continue discussing these facts, feel free to hit me up on the side, but I'm not going to engage in this thread any more. Have a good one

At this point all I want to know is the companies who won't lie to you when given a national security letter.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want my entire network protected at the gateway, so not sure how the tor network keeps up with streaming video etc? With Qubes you can have a Whonix-ws VM have all its traffic go through Tor, and have another VM with all its traffic through some VPN to use with streaming.

What about my TV, my phone, my iPad? The way I see it the only workable solution to privacy against my ISP is to do it all at the gateway. And in that instance, I need ~50mbit which tor can’t provide.

> What about my TV, my phone, my iPad?

For iOS there's Onion Browser by Mike Tigas, but it's definitely NOT as privacy resistant as a Tor Browser. For Android there's Orfox and official Tor Browser builds for Android are coming this year.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Latency and throughput

> Latency and throughput It's not as bad as you're making it seem.

This is a choice you don't make to get. Each one might take different choices on the latency-throughput/privacy trade-off.

Given the current usage, I would say that most people value the latency and throughput a lot.

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