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benny1967's Avatar
Posts: 3,790 | Thanked: 5,718 times | Joined on Mar 2006 @ Vienna, Austria
#24
Originally Posted by nilchak View Post
I understand that fact that Google is growing fast and big. But as long as there are alternatives (to google's services) and Google is not buying up all competition, there is no reason to say Google services are evil - as it ties you down to Google.
I can see your point, but it's only half true.

When we're talking about collecting data (from various sources), the potential danger multiplies with each additional data source they get. So we needn't wait until Google buys all competition... The truth is that there is no competition any more. I'm not aware of any other company or organisation on this planet that holds more data about me. There's not one single other company out there that has so many data sources.


Originally Posted by nilchak View Post
The fact that many people worry over the fact that Google pries into your activities when you use Google (most are machine algorithms) seems to me to be unjustified, since if you are privacy minded dont use Google's services and instead use the already existing alternatives. Google is not doing its data colletion surreptitiosly. Most of its data collection activities are known and disclosed by Google and also specifically stated how long they keep such user data etc.
The point is that Google doesn't only collect your data when you use Google services. They also collect your data when you don't use Google services (through Google Analytics and Adsense)... and this happens without people knowing. (I never saw I website that told me on the front page "We're using Google Analytics. Click to proceed only if your comfortable with that.")

I'm not sure if I should trust any of their statements on what they actually collect, how long they keep it etc. - Only last week I sent a presentation to a new co-worker that would never have been possible if I only had access to the data we say we keep. If the data's available, why wouldn't they use it? Who would ever know?
 

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