Poll: How much do you trust Google? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: How much do you trust Google?

#51

Post by jhcnt » Sun, May 04, 2014, 7:52 PM UTC

danpalmer wrote: post #35

None of the above. I trust Google, but not the US government (or the UK govt for that matter) to not order them to turn over data, or take it anyway, and because of this I have moved most of my data, everything important, to my own server outside the US. As far as Google themselves go, I realise they are driven by profit and use my data "against" me in advertising, but in return for that, I get reliable services that…

I find "trust" a bizarre word to use in the context of corporations. I have faith that Google are rational enough to not dance with death (e.g. having a trove of dirty secrets that could be leaked) but I would never say I trust Google. Game theory is much more interesting than the silly notion of "trust".

Re: Poll: How much do you trust Google?

#52

Post by hadoukenio » Sun, May 04, 2014, 8:01 PM UTC

Navarr wrote: post #41

wellboy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok then the "evilness" per pupil is higher, however what's more evil? Kidnapping 230 puplis or spying on 23,000 pupils, or 230,000 or 23M?

Is it spying when you're just not turning off automated systems that nobody looks at the data for? It's literally no different than what Google does for anyone else, yet it's spying for schools because... why? Were the children using the services under 13? I've never understood why this was potentially illegal, and never seen anything address that.

> Is it spying when you're just not turning off automated systems that nobody looks at the data for?

James Clapper, is that you?

Re: Poll: How much do you trust Google?

#53

Post by benfb » Sun, May 04, 2014, 8:16 PM UTC

gordaco wrote: post #33

I still use google, but I try to avoid it when there is a better alternative. Nowadays the search engine is almost the only thing I use. I also have a gmail account that has devolved into a spam sink used to register in websites I intend to use only once or twice. And once in a blue moon I use google maps. They may have metadata about myself (which is still a lot!); but data , like photos or personal conversations, n…

You should look into Startpage[1]. It's basically a Google proxy that anonymizes your queries so they can't track you.

[1]: https://startpage.com/