I fear google way more than the NSA or the government. Google can link my name to someone claiming I'm a racist. It can tie me to stupid things I said online 15 years ago. Who knows what it will do in 5 years when Bing reduces their profit margin.
In order for the NSA to actually hurt me the government would have to essentially go full on fascist. But even in that case, first thing they'd do was to crack open Google's database.
That's what the FBI did after 9-11. They went to VISA and Mastercard to find out what the hijackers were up to.
NSA doing it is a lot worse. There is no transparency on what they do. I get no benefits in return for sharing my data. They have license to do all kinds of nasty things to me, that Google would have to go through a court for. From blocking my flights to making me disappear at night.
It’s not Facebook, Google, and the others that worry me; they mostly just want to sell you ads and make your products more convenient. It’s the national military of the place in which those companies (and troves of data) reside, which is known to suspend due process and human rights (including without limitation torturing people, summary executions without trial (google “al awlaki”), and imprisoning people indefinitely without trial) whenever they feel like it, for whatever reason they wish (including simply embarassing them in the media). It’s abso-fucking-lutely terrifying.
I don’t fear Google one bit. I fear the out-of-control US military which has access, at will, to all of Google’s data, with or without a court order, should they ever desire it strongly enough.
I think DuckDuckGo is unfairly singled out here. They do more than most companies to protect privacy, and most of their users are specifically trying to deprive Google of more feed for its data silo. Of course they can't protect you from the NSA. Extremely few actors can.
If your threat model includes actors within the US Federal Government (especially the intelligence community), run. Yesterday. That's a statement about our times, not about any particular company.
The solution ought to be browbeating the US Government for unethical practices, not browbeating a company that does privacy better than most, and not as well as would be necessary to stand toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful and far reaching organizations in the world.
Maybe the NSA should just outsource their IT operations to Google... Google has a better security/breach track record, and seems to do better in terms of finding what people are looking for.. I'm sure giving them more data to work with could only help. :-D
Google also doesn't: molest me at airports or train stations, drone civilians, assassinate anybody, launch wars that kill tens of thousands, murder your family with a SWAT team, violate your rights with force via parallel construction, threaten you with the espionage act, sell guns to Mexican cartels, sell weapons to anybody much less theocracies and violent 3rd world states. Google also can't null and void the entire US Constitution at will by using force.
Yep, it's absurd to the extreme to compare the NSA and Feds to Google.
On the other hand, Google has a lot of resources and lawyers to fight off the government if they come knocking, and they've been known to fight to the max in the past.
You? Not so much. If the FBI shows up at your door, you're toast.
Google by itself is much worse than NSA. At least, NSA does not screw up the industry and does not try to destroy local economies. I'm surprised there's not a lot of public backslash against Google and their employees.
It's not Google who you should be afraid of it's your government, if your government cares about data protection, than Google will not risk it, it's not worth it, even if they are evil,
But if your government forces Google to make a wiretap interface for them, they have no choice.
Either way they are in the hands of the government.
I think government surveillance is an issue because people can be arrested or harassed for things. I still don't see what harm can come from a private company having my data as long as they don't share it or use it for something nefarious. I don't see the threat of that happening with google.
To be clear these are two very separate issues: government surveillance and privacy policies of corporations.
We agree on the first point and disagree on the second.
If I'm wrong on the second, please give me a plausible example of something google would do with user data that would be actually harmful besides sharing with the government.
1) Google don't have the ability to take your life or limit your freedom.
2) Google maintains full control of your data. They will serve ads based on very specific criteria, but they're not going to give advertisers an Excel file with names and email addresses. That's bad for business.
While I enjoy my tinfoil hat, it seems that they're being open about the access given. This being said, if I didn't trust Google I wouldn't use them. I accept that I am trading certain information about me (interests, usage etc) for the bevvy of free services they provide.
What sort of information about me would the NSA be interested in?
In order for the NSA to actually hurt me the government would have to essentially go full on fascist. But even in that case, first thing they'd do was to crack open Google's database.
That's what the FBI did after 9-11. They went to VISA and Mastercard to find out what the hijackers were up to.
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