How would not using their products resolve the issue with the NSA? If people switched to other providers than other providers will get accessed like Google.
I am a poor man using services of Google. Thanks Google.
I want to know how the alternative service users are so sure that this will solve their privacy issues by not using Google services. Are they insiders in NSA, or NSA cannot track you on
other alternative services. HOW DO YOU KNOW ?
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
If Google really wants to help then it should stop tracking their users, stop spying on me and stop trying to force me to sing up to G+, they cannot give data to the NSA if they stop getting it as simple as that, but, all the NSA has to do is buy the information from Google, after all, they sell it.
My comment is referencing what was documented to happen during 2013: the NSA compelled tech companies to turn over user data under threat of jailing the executives and fining the company huge amounts.
They don't need to ask Google for data from other companies. They can compel them to provide the passwords or authentication codes which are stored on Google's servers. Or they could just ask for a list of which accounts have a saved password, so they know who to target next with an NSL.
Seeing as it's extremely likely that the NSA is tapping into fiber at exchanges near major corporations, and almost everything you do online is tracked by someone, it seems like a moot point anyway.
Who cares if Mozilla or Google is providing the NSA with access when the NSA is monitoring all the data heading to and from them without permission?
I can support this, but only if it offers real safety as opposed to Google.
So does it? Or is it safe only because NSA hasn't bothered to go to DDG yet, or do whatever they are doing to get Google's search data (cable splitters or whatever)?
The NSA could just as easily (probably more easily) hack smaller companies. It isn't as if Google is giving the US government access to user data (except when legally obligated through warrants) - the Prism program was essentially spying on these companies without their knowledge.
In case you didn't get the news, the NSA already does not bother to approach Google. They just install secret taps on Google's private lines between data centres, and siphon off all the replication traffic.
The NSA is a rogue agency that does not respect laws (or reinterprets them as they see fit). Going through the legal process to shut it down is certainly worthwhile, as is throwing its criminal elements in jail, particularly those that are happy to lie in congress.
However, the reality is that a rogue agency can evolve in the dark corners of the government, and that therefore it is likely that it will happen again. And even if it never happens in the US again, there are other countries out there, you know?
A strong technological solution that makes large-scale snooping impractical is a sine-qua-non no matter what happens on the legal side.
I am sure there are people there who do care about security and this is a victory, but it is a small one and not one that really saves their reputation.
The problem is that the NSA presumably gets access to the information before it is encrypted, so this does not limit what the NSA can get from Google. What it does do though is possibly cloud the traffic to some extent regarding cracking stuff, but then the NSA could probably just disregard the traffic between data centers.
The real victory is that other companies are more likely to follow Google and this may have an impact.
I try not to use anything related to Google. This includes their technologies like Go and AngularJS. Not that the NSA has necessarily compromised those too, but it's a matter of principal; the same reason I don't shop at Wal-Mart or eat at McDonalds: I do not trust them to do the right thing.
I was not aware of any voluntary cooperation with the NSA on the part of Google - indeed, the NSA rather famously hacked Google's internal fiber links. If Google was handing them data, why would they need to do that?
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