Why do people around here hate Google so much? I don't really care for my privacy in that kind of way. Is there a reason I should?

I don't really care about Google. I like the services they offer for free, that's all.

If you handle your data carefully, there's nothing wrong with Google.

If they want to look at my meme collection and my family photos they're more than welcome to as long as they keep the backup 😂

Thanks! It's good to be here.

I can see where you're coming from but I'm one of the people who don't really mind. If they're selling my information so the government can find out I'm boring af, I don't mind that one bit. Hopefully it'll even prevent random TSA searches.

In fact, if they're reading this, please create Google TSA for this purpose.

@PrivateGER you really rang him 😂😂😂😂😂

@Crapple Most of the time, yes. But ... Google Maps, for example, is by far the best navigation software. Google Street View is unbeatable. And, well, without Google there wouldn't be Android.

@naoetsu my problem with google is that they have a hand in everything where they can track just about everything you do. when it was just a search engine I liked it but as it is I see it as a corner stone of the Internet becoming a survalence state which I don't like

The know every time you visited a porn site, they upload your photos for a location for everyone to see, they even keep your location history. It's just too much for me, but keep in mind, once they have it, they have it, and they'll have it forever.

@tracktraps I don't know abt ur region but here in India, google maps is often unreliable... HERE Maps are far far better and reliable !

@PrivateGER @AllenII Thanks for the summon!

Let me type something when I get up. In the mean time, @Ashkin @runfrodorun @jpichardo

Sky net.

Really the only potentially negative thing google can glean from me that may interest my government is that I would kill my president if given half the chance, but seeing as there are about 40million like me, there is diddly squat they can do about it. That cunt needs to die, along with his how ever many fucking cabinet member our government has, they all corrupt twits.

Not I don't live in the United States of Trump.

Setting up my ⛺

@Jop- most people know that they are the same thing, only difference is that chromium has "anonymous" statistics removed. but I don't use either one so I don't have a dog in this race. carry on

@Jop- but Google is the 3rd part, they don't sell your data to 3rd parties, they buy the 3rd parties to better make use of your data.

This is going to be fun 🤣
The tin foil hats are going to have a field day here 🤣

@runfrodorun I disagree with the "no benefit to you" part. There are many examples where the data they gather helps you. Take Google Assistant or Google maps (traffic) for example.

@runfrodorun have to agree with @Froot, I am 100% aware of what and how much data they collect, they read my email, messages, track my location, all of that. I am also more than technically savvy to stop them, if I gave a shit.

I however personally feel, that I get enough value added to my life because of that information, that I happily give it to them.

It knows my habits to give me traffic alerts to social and calendar events, it gives me plenty of interesting news to read, I signed up on Google play music and never had to search for a song, I even skipped the setup and in all the time I have been using it I have not been disappointed in the music it chose for me.

Nothing in life is free, and unless you have something to hide, or you cheering on your SO or planning a terrorist attack, then all that info is mundane and provides equal value on both sides, until skynet is born, and then we will all apologise to the tinfoil hat wearers, but seeing as that won't happen in my generation, and despite technological advances the human race is exponentially fucking up the planet we live on, I don't give a shit, the shitstorm we are in now can only benefit by a hyper logical super aware all seeing artificial intelligence.

You worry about Google, what about the nsa, try blocking those fuckers. Only downside I really see into them, is when your drive crashes they refuse to let you use their backups of your data.

I have a simple life, I work, run and cycle, Google can do with that data all it wants, fuck it gives me apps to see just how much data it has on me. But hey, I am not cheating on my wife or taxes, i only want to kill my president, but I don't own guns, am non violent and have a thing for blood, all of which google probably knows so it classifies me as a non threat, but seeing as about 40mkllion others also want to kill him, as a machine it will consider that significant enough data to declare him worthy of being killed.

@runfrodorun
No idea how your friends managed to fuck up following such simple directions. I highly doubt it's the app that made a mistake there.
Google traffic alerts and other stuff derived from the data they gather has been really useful for me.

@RTRMS my kind of guy 😄
Also when the skynet rises I think Google having our data will be the least of our problems and by then the tin foils have probablly found 5 new things to go nuts over. Like tap water turning frogs gay

@runfrodorun We have a bit of a war brewing here don't we 🤣

@RTRMS 'unless you have something to hide, or cheering on your SO or planning a terrorist attack, then all that infor is mundane'.

Do you realize you technically just called quite some people on here terrorists? Why? I don't have an SO and I technically do not have criminal stuff to hide.

Thanks. Oh you might think I'm overreacting but in the way you said this, I am interpreting it like the way I just told.

@runfrodorun

Anyways, next to that. @RTMS I have about the same conveniences as you. I just have them without the big data hogging services.
Partly because someone I know is getting into legal trouble for 'nothing to hide' google collected data. So please don't pull that nothing to hide bullshit on me.

@jpichardo please help us out as well bro

Haha, someone must really have a grudge against me on here! Just dropped 200+ upvotes.

@linuxxx hello thanks for the tag.

@naoetsu look man, I was like you I didn't care to sacrifice my privacy in order to be more confortable, but tbh my concern is not that they have my data, after all it kinda helps, is what they do with it, I get that personalization comes with a price, but if I ever entrust google with my data they are the ones I expect to use it and guard it, I dont like it being distributed around, thats why I hate facebook more, I also dont agree that hell everything I freaking do is being tracked, links, chats, search tendencies, even when they say is private it isnt, so thats why I dont like google, besides every bit of data in the internet is free for anyone to take, so for me it is better to avoid it

@jpichardo It's funny that I'm probably one of the persons who made you way more privacy conscious :)

@linuxxx yup you are

@naoetsu And tbh, I used to be someone like you. Then the snowden leaks came, I started doing tons of research and I became a privacy freak because the main thing is: Once your data is out there in unencrypted form, it can be (ab) used by anyone who get's access to it, including the bad guys.

@RTRMS
"Nothing to hide"
reminds me of this quote:
"Show me the man and I'll show you the crime."

If the government can search through your life, they can find something to hold against you, and everyone is guilty of breaking some obscure law. Everyone is also totally guilty of saying something that would sound truly awful in court. So, if they have a reason, they could throw you in jail at a whim, or twist you into some horrible-sounding monster.

"Nothing to hide" is missing the rest of the sentence: "if you don't look too closely." It's also synonymous with "Sign me up for the police state," and a number of other equally scary sentences.

Basically, once your data is out there, it's there forever, and anyone can access it for any purpose whatsoever, good or nefarious.

@Ashkin this this this this this.

Did I mention: this.?

@Ashkin Also we need a fucking favourite comment function. I'd favourite the hell out of your comment.

@runfrodorun yes, but then someone else is reading all my info, or I will have to do a but load more work. This way it gets done for me, at a negligible cost

@Torbuntu I am so sorry bro :'(

And mother of god, that could have been my username in your comment!

@runfrodorun What's your problem, anyway?

It's no secret that Google lives off the data of its users. By using their services, you allow Google to use your information.

However, this does not mean that everyone can access this data as they wish. If you use Google Maps, Google will of course sell the collected information to other providers. Not explicitly YOUR data, but all traffic information of ALL users, for example.

You don't have to use Google. No one's forcing you to. If you do, however, you will be informed that your data will be used. So it's your decision.

With Adwords / Google Analystics the situation is in my opinion more critical, since user profiles are usually created without the knowledge of the users. But also this is usually done "anonymously" based on the IP address and cookies - unless you are logged in to Google.

If you use Google, be aware that your data is being used. If you don't want to, don't use Google!

@Ashkin I don't advocate violence, except against my president, as he is at best a criminal. Like quite literally, we have held 8 votes if no confidence against his this year and the cunt survived all of them, just from what we actually know, he has gotten away with stealing tax payers money, driven away international investment, increased unemployment by 60% pushed the economy into a recession, allowed countless corrupt institutions to arise, and to date our only effective resource has been civil disobedience, literally just refusing to pay for the shit.

Killing him would be a public service on a continental scale. Our economy literally improves every time we tell him or one of his corrupt fuckers to piss of on a newsworthy scale, or when we organise a protest against him, or setup a no confidence vote, and it drops every time he opens his mouth in public.

I literally hold rapists and pedophiles in higher regard than him, cause at least as cras an non pc as it may be they not fucking an entire country and getting paid for it too. Pretty sure he is still alive for no other reason than neither heaven nor hell wants him.

@Ashkin Oh wow, political insults. Fresh. Your comment is eerily similar to ones made by the alt-right drones.

@linuxxx Yes I think you are overreacting.

Along with the rest of the shitstorm that has erupted since I was last here. How can one guys opinion throw you guys into such a frenzy? It's as if it annoys you when people make different choices than you. As if you opposed people's freedom to choose. Hmmm... reminds me of the Ubuntu discussion we had with @linuxxx....

And then you go accusing US of wanting a police state. Odd, odd indeed

@RTRMS You need to start getting your news from a source more reliable than CNN. Even tea leaf divination is more reputable. 😅

@Ashkin like... Breitbart? 🤣

@Froot they're almost as bad.

Come on, we've had this discussion before. 😞

@Froot
"it's as if it annoys you when people make different choices than you" - i've never mentioned anything about being annoyed by peoples different choices.

Let me fucking tell you something. My friend had a freedom of choice and he took that. Good for him! Then, the data which that freedom of choice collected got him into legal trouble. Oh and yeah, it was data that had something to do with 'I have nothing to hide'.

'Reminds me of that ubuntu discussin with linuxxx' - Uhm I am very fucking sorry but we actually ended up agreeing on something. Why the fuck are you using that to fuck around with me right now?

@Ashkin True true. I remember now. You just sound sooooo similar to the alt-right drones in YouTube comments 😄

@linuxxx Because it was relevant? Are you getting upset? Come on now...

Also, I think we agreed to disagree as always didn't we? 😄

As for the legal trouble. Well sad to tell you that but he probablly did something wrong then. One does not just get into legal trouble. He might not be telling you that he did something wrong but he probablly did.

Edit (not to linuxxx): Why do you guys keep downvoting everything you don't agree with?

@Froot Oh you have to do a lot more to get me upset xD. And nope, we actually agreed, that's why I got pissed you just mentioned it *against* me.

Fuck right off. Although I might not agree with someone on their opinions, I'll never fucking ever say that someone 'might be guilty' without knowing that person. Let's just keep it on the fact that I know the whole damn situation and I know that he is in trouble right now due to data from a specific company that is being misinterpreted at the moment only I can't do anything about that misinterpretation.

Also, 'Are you getting upset? Come on now...." that's literally provoking me, which is a very nasty way of having a discussion.

@Froot Also I mentioned that person above because he is an irl friend of mine and I want him to experience one of these wars :P

@Ashkin Thanks for making me feel less lonely in this 'war' :)

@linuxxx Hmmm must have forgotten what we agreed on then. But it's good. It's good we agreed.
And come on. Holding it against you? We argued for quite a while about the freedom of choice Vs forcing your preference on to people there. And your side in that argument was abundantly clear. So it was a relevant example to bring up

As for the guilty part. You're right. That part came off wrong. Innocent till proven guilty right.
But the fact stands that one doesn't *just* get I to legal trouble like that. It sounds fishy.

And I'm not provoking you. I'm just interpreting the change in your writing style. That's all. The change in style implied that you were getting upset so I pointed it out. Don't see a problem here.

@linuxxx jpicardo? Sure, absolutely. I got no problem with this.

@linuxxx this is how liberals argue.
• Bring up irrelevant/unrelated crap
• Invent/misinterpret details/stats/science
• Over-generalize/extrapolate (All conservatives are corrupt bigots / You don't like Mexican food? Racist!)
• Strawmans (this one remote edgecase doesn't apply so your entire argument is invalid!)
• Ad hominem (attack character instead of argument)
• Accuse you of exactly what they're doing.
• etc.

There's no debating with them.
It just turns into an insult fest with zero real facts.

@Froot The way you described it, as in, referring to it the way you did, is very much interpretable (mother of god this word) as the way I interpreted it.

Guilty part, thanks. Oh and hell yes someone can get into trouble like that haha. That will come more and more in the upcoming years, especially since the new dutch mass surveillance law got accepted. But for now, that's only over here.

Sorry but 'come on now....' seems childish to say and in an argument like ths I'd consider that provocative.

Nope I meant @incognito, not jpichardo :P

@Ashkin Tbh I don't even know the difference haha. I'm a left guy myself (pirate party ftw!) but idk how the system in the us works really :)

@Ashkin Here you go again. Text book alt right tactics 😄

@linuxxx Well my bad if it seemed childish. I don't out much effort into wording these things here.

As for refering and interpreting and so on. Look. I'm don't have the time nor willingness to deal with people's emotions or political correctness in these discussions. Try to not assume everything to be an insult or provocation and you'll be much better off ☺️

@Froot Sorry but I can't imagine her being rightist haha. Over here, the people who are highly against surveillance are the leftists and the ones who general don't give a fuck are the right ones ('we don't have anything to hide'). Not attacking you or 'defining' what 'side' you are though, let that be clear.

@Froot Oh I'll interpret stuff the way I interpret it. If it seems obiously said as *insert interpretation* to me, I'll interpret it as such.

@linuxxx liberal = zealot subset of the democrats.

Liberals very harshly ostracize anyone who doesn't share their views (think collectivism), attacking them in the same way they'd attack their political opposites ("with me or against me"). This convinces many moderate (sane) democrats to join or tolerate them.

tl;dr: liberal = militant left.

I amusingly refer to them as "tolerant liberals" since that's what they so vocally claim to be.

I'm afraid somehow this rant's getting out of control :)

@Ashkin Hmm, I'll look into that more. Over here we just have left, middle and right. left is for the people, right is for the economy/the rich and the middle is in between obviously :). I'm very left myself!

@linuxxx Hehe odd. I'm not from USA but I'm reasonably in the with US politics and such and she really reminds me of the alt-right guys.
Where I live no-one even talks about privacy so I don't really have a frame of reference from home 😄 Well we had the ACTA protests but that proposal got blown to hell and it's been quiet ever since ☺️

Also don't worry about me. Half the people call me a libtard and the other half call me an alt-right aspi so you could say I'm battle tested. I'll be fine 😄

Anyway. This discussion doesn't seem to be about privacy or Google anymore and has more devolved into a semi political shouting fest so I don't feel like participating anymore 😄

@tracktraps you must new here :P. When it's about privacy, we usually go on until at least 500+ comments :P

@linuxxx Unfortunately I don't know how the political systems work over there, so :<

@Froot Fair enough haha :).

Fair enough as well :P.

Oh it's slightly turning into political stuff but the main thread/idea is still about privacy I think =).

Nahh everything here used to be fine with privacy until a few politicians decided it was time to develop a big ass surveillance system to monitor everyone full-time. And I happen to be against that :)

Just gonna drop this here.
I myself co sider myself to be a liberal in that I believe in people's liberty to do whatever the fuck they want as long as it doesn't harm others or restrict their ability to do the same.

@Ashkin said I'm a libertarian. Maybe. I know one self claimed libertarian on YouTube and he's a trump loving propaganda machine pile of shit. So I don't like that name. Maybe my perception has been ruined by him, who knows

I'm squarely in the middle politically.
Small government, no religion in politics, taxation is theft, low regulations, no forcing anything on anyone, etc. Individual rights > everything.

I'm a libertarian.

@Froot You act like a (US) liberal.

@Ashkin I like you and your opinion.

@Froot I get what you mean with the freedom of choice.

They did this thing over here in the 'Dutch Privacy Weeks' where a lawyer firm got the idk how many hundred pages of Instagram's privacy policy/terms of service into a 5 points page which easily showed what instagram can do with your data.

They went across schools for this privacy week with this information and with at least one school (that was the only thing I read about), they showed that piece of paper and explained what could happen to the kids' data.

They asked if the kids chose to download this thing themselves and they said yes, because the features seemed great.

When the kids saw what amount of data instagram collects and what it can use it for (basically whatever the fuck they want, on and yes, I actually read most parts of the insta privacy policy), about half of them instantly removed their insta accounts.

'it wasn't clear how much data we are giving away and we're not alright with that. Why aren't they displaying this properly so we can make an educated choice?'

So yeah, I'm all for freedom of coice, as long as you can make a very much educated one (not only with the privacy aspect, with all aspects)

@tracktraps !!!
❤😊

@Ashkin I don't watch CNN, not an American, and no point watching local news as it's censored, presenters have been fired for discussing topics which will cast a negative, albeit true impression of our president elect. He also fired the public prosecutor for bringing up charges of theft and corruption against him, fired the finance minister for disagreeing with him,it was a while back, I forgot details but that was the gist of it.

@RTRMS sounds like how the democrats operate here. Everyone is friends of someone else, or owes them favors, or someone has blackmail on them. The corruption is *staggering.*

Both parties are totally guilty of this, but it is predominately the political left.

lol voting districts where 100% of the votes were cast for a Democrat (Obama last time, Hillary this time). Or districts with more votes cast than voters. Or districts with dead people voting. Or people voting in multiple states. Or people tearing up Republican ballots. The res also Hillary getting away with perjury, destruction of evidence after a subpoena, releasing classified intel, etc. And then there's all the people testifying against her/her family over the years who ended up dead.

It's scary.

@Froot so what exactly are you going to do if you did something (that is completely legal) and your data about that is collected.. And a few years later it gets illegal and they oh I dunno sue you for it?

@Ashkin well republicans tend to want to help themselves while democrats want someone to take care of them. so democrats tend to be more like sheep and do the dirty shit they are told to do. but I'm getting a bad taste in my mouth from talking about this crap

@runfrodorun bam! ❤❤❤

@runfrodorun never said it's a lot of work securing my data, the work comes in maintaining the benefits I have by not giving a crap.

I will have to find my own music to listen too, I'd have to actually add plans to my calendar, I'd have to buy a map and possibly a compass.

Not to mention that my. Mobile phone turns into a dumb phone, loads of non Google apps rely on Google services. I will have to go back to using sms.

I rather then read my conversations that go back to the stone age and then on top of that vastly. Inconvenience friends and family over petty bullshit.

@runfrodorun that's fine by me, I like my benefits, I like my personalised search results, I like my Google play music and I like my real name.

I already use a custom rom, and the first thing I can do to turn my phone from a paperweight into an actual usable device, is install Google services.

I don't feel the need to inconvenience every one I know over a paranoia I don't have. It's 2017,short of living under a rock, somehow someway you will be tracked, directly or indirectly and as long as the benefits to me are extensive and I have nothing to hide, I will not care.

Ignorance is bliss.

@RTRMS ignorance of the law doesn't excuse breaking the law as the last judge that made me pay a speeding ticket. atleast my ticket paid for a fucking sign on that road

@incognito You can't be charged for a breaking a law before its creation. When a is created/changed its changes only apply from that moment on. Else you could be sued for anything at any time, the system wouldn't work

@runfrodorun So basically you downvoted anything you don't agree with. Never thought of doing that, I've mostly just upvote when I agree with something or such but I downvoted quite rarely. Only in severe cases where someone is clearly offensive or such.

Edit: Christ there's a lot of typos in my last comment. But it's morning so oh well... Can't edit it anymore anyway

@Froot not really true. if you did something that wasn't illegal and have files from it they can get a warent and find those files and say you are breaking the law. it's dumb as hell but it is possible.

as for the down voting cause you don't agree with them I don't agree with. just go on with your day, I don't like censorship in any way. spam/repost or other bullshit deserves down voting but someone speaking their opinion should not be. hell tell them why they are a dumbass don't just down vote them.

@Froot (!Google related) how do you feel about a secret database where everyone's DNA data can get stored into?

@Froot I nearly downvote every meme by default but that's it tbh

@linuxxx i don't even go that far unless I seen it or something close to it on here haha

@PerfectAsshole I am not familiar with the specific legal situation in the USA (studied law in Europe), but you're right. What was legal in the past doesn't have to be nowadays.

To give you an extreme example:
Until 2001, Denmark allowed pr0nography to be produced with actors from 15 years of age (the Danish protection age limit). Color Climax developed pr0n with teenage actors from the age of 15, and through clothing and hairstyle they created a particularly young look.

If you still have one of those movies today and the bad guys find it, you've got a huge problem.

@PerfectAsshole Wrong. They can get the documents sure. But even getting a warrant for that would be highly difficult. There are very few cases of a law being passed that has retroactive power and these usually involve very serious topics like human rights in the Nuremberg trials. I doubt you'll get mixed up in suck trials.

Also, sure, they can sue you. Anyone can sue you. But they won't win. Retroactive power of laws is a well established topic and it won't take much to win that case. As for the cost, a legal defence insurance policy will cover that.

About the downvotes. I agree, I reserve my downvotes for the really bad cases not for silencing opposition

@tracktraps yes but that's a disconnected case. If the producers were prosecuted after the law was passed then it would be relevant but I doubt they were.
Owning a now illegal video is a crime commited now not when the video was produced so the example is irrelevant in context of retroactive laws

@incognito That's a very deep topic that would quickly end up with a discussion about cloning.

As a short answer. Yes if it's partial data. No if it's the full genome

@Froot yeah retroactive laws are very rare but I was more talking about having information saved from before that's deamed illegal not as extreme as @tracktraps example though.

the only example I can think about is like bootlegging software that copywrite has expired on and it updates to a newest version automatically. it would be bad programing on the companies part but the guy in this case could still be made an example of. but this falls into the anybody can be sued case.

but all this shit aside the problem really isn't with the laws but that your data can be used to bully you into signing an confession when without it you would be let go in 48 hours in the US

@runfrodorun Fair enough