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Google Fights Back

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Re: Google Fights Back

#221
post #7

Google owns my soul. Their boxes know when I sleep, when I wake, how much I exercise, what I listen to, my innermost thoughts, my chats with loved ones, what I watched on Netflix last night, what my company does, the flu I have at the moment, what the hypochondriac in me looks up in the middle of the night, what I buy, whom I call, what I spend money on, where I spend it... I nominally pay for these services, but I s…

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Re: Google Fights Back

#222
post #170
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but now in some of the use cases they demoed the data itself never leaves the device. The AI models are running directly on the device, so there is no need to transmit user data to cloud servers. This is on contrast to all of their apps running in the cloud and your data living centrally off device. I find this new approach to be a nice balance for user privacy and the necessity of data aggregation in order for…

Did they say that the data never leaves the device? Just because it's local inference doesn't mean it doesn't leave the device. They have a strong incentive to call home with the transcripts/metadata to improve their model on you. I haven't had the time to wade through the barrage of information Google has put out in the last few days (ironically)...did they explicitly say that?

The explicitly stated in the presentation that all AI modeling data is processes on device, and then only anonymized lessons learned are sent back to google.

Re: Google Fights Back

#223
post #131

Say what you will about Google, they're really good at PR. They and Facebook share the most indefensible tech business model in today's political climate (at least in the west), but Google does such a better job of obscuring and re-framing that fact than Facebook does.

Facebook’s mistake was making an enemy of the media by demoting their status in the news feed. This has led to many reporters and their friends being put out of a job. Now everyone thinks Facebook is public enemy #1 for selling ads when other major companies have the business model of literally burning the Earth.

Re: Google Fights Back

#224

Yet another hit piece. It's disgusting how obvious and desperate these are getting. > To put it more succinctly: “Yes, we collect a lot of data. But that data makes amazing things possible.” I don't like Google, but stating that collecting data is bad just because, doesn't sell it for me. Oh, and this refers to data already available to the general public. It makes me wonder if there is something behind. What's the a…

FWIW, the quote you used is making the case for Google, not against them.

Re: Google Fights Back

#225
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we make the same argument about Apple. What happens when apple stops being apple, when they don't have the smart phone dominance and decides to venture back into Ads. Or who owns apple when someone else has to. I understand why anyone would want ios now but your argument is about the future.

Sure...but currently Apple is (seemingly) more privacy focused than Gಠ۾ಠgle.

It seems totally ridiculous to put pie in the sky faith and trust in one trillion dollar globalist publicly traded corporation over another.

Re: Google Fights Back

#226
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still reports your movements to your cell provider. Get rid of cell phones if you're worried about privacy.

That is like saying that 'unless its 100% perfect, I may as well send everything to Google and the ad-verse' People can't simply get rid of their cell phones. At minimum, I need one for work.

If you care about protecting something, leaving one known-exploited exploitable backdoor open is practically as bad as leaving 100 open. "Closing all known backdoors" is a rational compromise. "Closing more backdoors known others are open" is an irrational feelgood measure.

Re: Google Fights Back

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I realised in the next months that the perceived "freedom to tinker" on Android is something hugely overrated. I've never really wanted to tinker much with my smartphone. I want it to do a handful of simple tasks (calls, texts, maps, music, light web browsing), and otherwise get out of the way. Similarly, I switched to Mac OS X awhile back after years on Linux and BSD, because I realized that I would never want to…

While I admire people like Richard Stallman and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, IMO they fail to understand that most people simply don't care -- they have a life, job, family and stuff they like to do in their free time and they want technology to enable them and save them time, not get in the way and take their free time. I used Debian as a main driver for several years and lost patience around 2010. Using a MacBook Pro with…

Yes same here. I was on ubuntu from 2003-2010 and quit for osx because I didn't have time to tinker and fix basic-level services like audio and display settings. I only recently got ubuntu 16.04 on my desktop (dual boot) and am enjoying it, but I still drive osx on my laptop.

Re: Google Fights Back

#228

I'm impressed with the direction Google is taking, and how they've pivoted in the face of public awareness of privacy concerns. I like the Google products and services that I use. There are some that I miss (Reader) and some that just confuse me (Bookmarks), but the core works for me. Based on commentary I've seen, I may be the only person on Hacker News to think so. Regardless, I'm hopeful for the future.

FWIW, I agree with this sentiment. Google did not need to give this stance at I/O. It appears that they're being as transparent as they can about the fact that our data is their business model. I get it: our online privacy is important. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to remain truly anonymous on the Internet, and this is mostly thanks to Google. However, the converse could be Google using our data for mal…

The force of the wind hits you less when you already bend in its direction. When the privacy laws are put in place, which they will be, Google will escape most of the wrath. This is just getting their affairs in order for the inevitable.

Re: Google Fights Back

#229
post #7

Google owns my soul. Their boxes know when I sleep, when I wake, how much I exercise, what I listen to, my innermost thoughts, my chats with loved ones, what I watched on Netflix last night, what my company does, the flu I have at the moment, what the hypochondriac in me looks up in the middle of the night, what I buy, whom I call, what I spend money on, where I spend it... I nominally pay for these services, but I s…

Speaking of MySpace, I noticed in yesterday's keynote that Google controlled the end-to-end (E2E) user experience for their demos to work flawlessly.

The value proposition to Developers was not very clear, but I imagine a few bad 3rd party apps could severely harm the E2E Google experience.

Re: Google Fights Back

#230
Honestly the amount of people concerned about their "privacy" is shocking... kinda makes one wonder what most of these people are up too, what are they trying to hide? Obviously, some people are just concerned for good reason but I get the feeling most people are concerned because their hiding shit.

If it means that an literate mother of 3 from India can become literate when it counts then Google execs can take naked pictures of me and publish them in the New York times for all I care.

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