Hundreds of deflecting comments about coffee at McDonalds and astroturfing. Well done! Can we now talk about how Google uses creepy tactics to undermine privacy and the GDPR?
Oh, please. There's a million threads on HN complaining about Google and Facebook. Doesn't even matter if they did something, any post will still have those comments. You can't consider the proportionality of the response by just one thread.
It's really quite amazing that when a company that's hitched it's brand entirely to privacy first commits a big privacy faux pas, hides it for a year, and then doubles down on it not being a problem, you have somehow managed to turn the top voted thread to a discussion on the failings of other companies instead. Bravo.
What the hell is going on in the comments here? It's like half the comments are edgelords with some version of "i am shocked that an advertising company would do such a thing"
Has HN just turned into Reddit? Do people really not care that people's privacy is being dumped down the toilet? Google is known for shit like this. They even scan your emails and alert you when bills are due. Shit like that is not ok. Don't fuck with my privacy unless I opt in.
I read the article, thought to myself, "let's see how HN finds a way to say this is actually bad for privacy", clicked through to comments here, and was not disappointed. The hivemind anti-Google kneejerking is quite out of control.
Company: Supports measures that lead to additional privacy because they realize how important it is to their users
HN: Don't be tricked, Google is evil.
Like I understand WHY there's a hate boner for Google. I just don't understand why people think it's bad for them to acknowledge the preferences of their users and make decisions accordingly.
I'm not that bothered about the type of privacy Chrome invades. If someone put a camera in my bedroom I'm bothered but if Google knows I'm thinking of fixing my washing machine and tries to advertise to me it doesn't bother me.
But say that and you get down voted etc by the "people screaming their lungs out about privacy" crowd. So us types kind of keep quiet.
That's some creepy shit for fools without appreciation for privacy (who will later call on their government to prevent Google from rightfully using data they willingly provided).
Is this guy actually complaining that Google is taking measures to increase user privacy? Or am I being too cynical/not cynical enough? 'Cause my knee-jerk response is "Dear Marketers, This is why people hate you."
You think Google feels any pressure from blog comments like that? Well you're wrong. It's pointless bickering - I've always disliked that about reading tech news. People who have no idea how Google even operates and the technology behind the products take for granted and who could never even write a solid business plan seem to love complaining about inane details and playing victim. I'm tired of reading it. Until you can prove Google is doing something wrong or unethical, take your free service and stop complaining. Or switch to another.
If you have criticism that can improve the product, that's different. But these are just childish whines that don't accomplish anything. If Google is overstepping some privacy line, prove it and get them some bad press, like what recently happened with Path mining peoples' contacts. But Google are not malicious predators, and nobody is forcing anybody to use their products, so people need to stop being so melodramatic.
The article, quoting Google's PR: "Google is in a unique position to connect consumers with your business in the most relevant ways. Whether they’re searching on Google, checking promotions on Gmail, or watching videos on YouTube, we can deliver the most relevant information based on what they’re doing, wherever they are, when they’re looking, and on any device they’re using. Today, we’re building on these capabilities with new ads innovations to deliver even more relevance."
"Checking promotions on Gmail"?
Eric Schmidt once wrote:
“Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it… We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”
That was in 2010. They're now well over the "creepy line", and probably well past the European Privacy Directive.
Log out of Google, now. Delete all their cookies. And get off Gmail. There's a site on how to do this.[1] You don't need Google's "services".
>>google is a bigger concern for privacy and personal liberty
>Big claim. Any proofs?
All this skepticism around Google's capacity to abuse their troves of data and invasive services is a clear indicator that this discussion has very little to do with real privacy. It is mostly a playground for various corporate, political and media shills.
It's not a surprise, it just rides the trendy tide of accusing big corporations of egregious privacy violations.
Obviously Google has been doing this for years. But it's a slow news day and we need a sexy headline, so let's go with a recent favorite: "<insert BigCo here> is violating your privacy! What are you gonna do about it?! Get angry!"
> The fundamental challenge... is making computing systems that people feel comfortable using. “They don’t feel safe, they don’t feel trust... Does this company have my best interests at heart at all?..”
Making users feel good about surrendering data, defined as “protecting privacy”.
Google’s positioning on the current furor is pretty interesting.
Specifically the preferred corporate definition of ‘privacy’ to mean...
> Being respectful of a user can be as simple as giving her a way to respond to a product that bothers her, whether its an ad for a chicken recipe that’s not relevant for her because she’s a vegetarian or an abusive message that she wants to report.
... Funnel-optimization (“user trust”), and enhanced personal data collection.
Google's business model is antithetic with "privacy". This is by design and very much out in the open, they are an advertising company, their revenue is literally and as publicly as possible coming from not keeping your data private. Expecting Google to give you privacy is like asking a funeral home to extend your life. It's just not their business model.
Wow, seconds to minutes after comments highlighted the crass hypocrisy of Google's "Privacy is at the heart of everything we do" they are all downvoted.
>This isn’t the first time that Google has used disingenuous arguments to suggest that a privacy protection will backfire. We’re calling this move privacy gaslighting, because it’s an attempt to persuade users and policymakers that an obvious privacy protection—already adopted by Google’s competitors—isn’t actually a privacy protection.
Exactly. Firefox and Safari have both implemented and keep improving the type of fingerprint protection that Google is throwing their hands in the air about.
This summary is a thorough response, pointing out just how ridiculous and meritless the original post[1] from Google was.
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