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What I use instead of Google services

gabrielweinberg.com

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Re: What I use instead of Google services

#171

Post by mentaat »

wfjackson wrote: post #50
kungfooguru wrote: post #45

tl;dr: give your data to Apple instead of Google because...?

Because Apple's free services are a value add to increase their device sales off which they make a ton of money, while Google's free services are typically monetized with targeted advertising based on a profile built off your private data, so they tend to collect and retain a lot of it.

except google collecting data doesn't mean google shares that data with advertisers. its a common misconception of how the ad model works.

moreover google has one of the best records of security for a consumer facing company. your data is more safe with google than apple - no question about that.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#172

Post by Semaphor »

kllrnohj wrote: post #124
Semaphor wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Build a very complete profile of you, sell that data to advertisers. Maybe tell insurance companies that you frequently do high risk activities. Sell the information that you were at the beach when you took a sick day. This list could go on and on. Another thing: Imagine someone would get HD video of your room while you slept in it. I can't imagine what use it would be but I absolutely would not like to be filmed lik…

> Build a very complete profile of you, sell that data to advertisers. Why would advertisters spend money for a profile of you? Answer: they don't. This market just doesn't exist. It's fabricated. It's a fantasy to pretend your trivial existence is worth big bucks. It isn't. Advertisers do not want your information . They want your money. Google uses your information to try and match you up with relevant advertisers.…

I replied to a hypothetical question and pulled some random ideas out of my arse.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#173

Post by Cowicide »

For those of you in this thread that are dismayed that some of us don't enjoy being tracked, I highly recommend a short, entertaining documentary that's currently available on Netflix, iTunes, etc. called:

Terms and Conditions May Apply

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/terms_and_conditions_may_app...

http://tacma.net/

Actually, I think even some privacy-conscious folks might learn a thing or two from it as well. I know I did. :)

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#174

Post by joeclark77 »

jastanton wrote: post #131
dskhatri wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His point is more about not putting all your eggs in one basket; you certainly don't tell your barista about an upcoming physician's appointment, or that you are in the market for a house. Your barista is also disconnected from parties who may leverage the information you provide him/her. Similarly, you don't tell your broker that you prefer Ethiopian coffee. Google offers so many services that it has a much broader…

Actually it's more like going to your Dr appt and realizing they have a barista onsite... of course you're not going to tell the barista why you're going to the Dr, and the barista isn't going to know your full medical history, there is a pretty large separation of concerns there. Same applies to big companies. There are really big barriers up between services like there are between the Dr and the on site barista. To…

That may be true of doctors with coffee bars, but it is absolutely NOT true of Google. Google is an advertising company, period. All of the thousand things they do are for one purpose: to sell advertising based on getting better and better at knowing the customer and targeting ads you're likely to click on.

Even if Google does say that some app is firewalled, the implied follow up is "...until customers stop caring" or "...until the law allows us to use it". Everything they do is intended to facilitate advertising, even if not yet.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#176

Post by joeclark77 »

Pxtl wrote: post #142
Carrok wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying you're ok with me knowing everywhere you've been for the past few years? I'm going to assume then that you don't visit strip clubs, bars, 'adult book' stores, the house of your drug dealer, the house of your secret lover, a proctologists office, an OBGYN, an abortion clinic, or a million other places. You may not visit these places, but many others do, and having that information publicly available c…

It suddenly occurred to me that I live an intensely boring life. I'm unblackmailable, yay!

But somebody who wants to burglarize your house, or worse, could figure out when you're likely not to be home.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#177

Post by wzdd »

astrocat wrote: post #75

> "Like most people, I don't like to be tracked. I also am the founder of the search engine that doesn't track you, DuckDuckGo." It pains me to hear intelligent people talk about being "tracked" as something "bad" a priori. While there are certainly plenty of examples of abuse of knowledge, I tend to think of most "tracking" not as "stalking" but as "relationship building." Let me explain... Google is a service provi…

> I tend to think of most "tracking" not as "stalking" but as "relationship building."

That is just another term (and a significantly creepier one) for the same thing, for those people who don't want that kind of relationship. A good rule of thumb would be to assume that people who "don't want to be tracked" have already considered the fact that tracking may help the company in question improve its service to them -- after all, this is frequently given as the justification for tracking.

From this viewpoint ("I don't want that kind of relationship, and am prepared to live with the associated service degradation"), it is logical to switch to services for which your envisaged greater accountability isn't necessary.

Incidentally, I have issues with DDG simply because it will return Android programming results from 2011 in preference to those from 2014, despite the entire state of play having changed in those three years, because it was a really good result in 2011 -- or because it simply doesn't seem to index as much of the Web. These are just anecdotes, but in my personal experience the "relationship" I have with Google search isn't a very large part of why it's good.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#178

Post by joeclark77 »

bduerst wrote: post #66
seanflyon wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

Isn't that a McCarthyism problem, not a data problem?

Interesting thought. If McCarthy could have subpoena'd Google, he'd have been able to prove that they were all commies and then people wouldn't be unfairly smearing his name today.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#179

Post by imgabe »

a3n wrote: post #128
imgabe wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, say someone has a complete database of my location sampled at 10 minute intervals over the past few years. What could they do with that information that would be harmful to me?

> What could they do with that information that would be harmful to me? Harmful to someone , and it's different for different people at different times. Also, a piece of information that may be benign today could be harmful tomorrow with a change in the political environment. Maybe you visited a specialist, or were on the same floor as a specialist, and got extra attention from your health insurance as a result. Mayb…

If you visited the specialist, your health insurance would already know because they'd be paying the bill. Now, I'm not an expert on medical billing, but I can't imagine how "being on the same floor" as a specialist could result in any sort of invoice. I'm not sure what you mean by "extra attention". Why would the insurance company use that information? Surely any given specialist is around hundreds of people every day he or she isn't treating, so that particular data point has no use in predicting who is going to receive care from that specialist.

Standing near someone - same argument as above.

In the rare case that you are actively involved in overthrowing a corrupt government, then yes, it is important to keep yourself hidden from that government. But privacy in general does nothing to prevent the corrupt government from coming to power in the first place. If anything we need less privacy - for the government.

People don't "just like" things for no reason. I think it's worth examining why we like privacy and what needs it fulfills, and what other ways we might be able to fulfill those needs. It seems to me that digital information is just too easy to distribute for us to have any hope of containing it. We are better off assuming any available information is going to be made public and finding the best way to proceed from there.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#180

Post by imgabe »

joeclark77 wrote: post #176
Pxtl wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It suddenly occurred to me that I live an intensely boring life. I'm unblackmailable, yay!

But somebody who wants to burglarize your house, or worse, could figure out when you're likely not to be home.

This supposes that burglars work by picking out a person, then waiting until they're not home to go rob their house. Instead, burglars search through a neighborhood to find houses where nobody is home, then break in and steal things. It's the other way around.

Regardless, if you're an average adult in the US, "weekdays between 9 and 5" is a fairly reasonable assumption of when you won't be home. No giant database needed.

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