Is Google evil and intrusive?

#37

Before Google the biggest search engine was probably yahoo. This started off as a human indexed system, and it contracted out its automated searches to various other companies (at one point including Google) . All search engines would take somewhere between 30 seconds and a minute to provide the results, which were more often than not irrelevant to the query you had entered. Companies paid for their pages to be high up on the search index.

Then Google came along. Searches took seconds. Results were relevant. Pages were ranked purely by relevance.

Google became popular because it was better. Hugely better.

#38

That’s akin to saying that slaves should stop complaining because their master gives them nice looking clothes.

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#39

I think comparing Google to slavery might be jumping the shark, bub.

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#40

Just because the bars are decorated with pretty ribbons, does not make the cages we all live in go away

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#41

Sure, because Google is literally beating and raping us. Things that actually happened to actual slaves in the US and around the world. Calling Google slavery just minimizes the ACTUAL atrocities that were committed (and still are in many parts of the world) against actual people. Calling Google slavery is absurd.

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#42

I feel compelled to side with the people who are saying the slavery comparison is a bit too hyperbolic, but in a sense we had become digital slaves giving ourselves away to every single website we see, and even I had fell victim to this; I’ve committed my entire life to Google and it’s great so long the idea every letter you type in GMail is probably being used to advertise relevant services is ignored.

The general consensus, and reasonable conclusion is it doesn’t matter what Google has on you, because if you’ve been on this planet long enough you either don’t care because you’re law-abiding, or don’t care because you realize no matter how hard you try to protect your online identity, it’s a vain and fruitless effort because the harder you try, the harder the Internet becomes to use.

Unless you live a fake dual life as a digital avatar not representative of yourself, there’s something of yourself — your real, actual self — on the Internet. There’s no stopping it, because even as you try to protect your online privacy, your real-world privacy is compromised with the use of credit and debit. Your money is in a bank which sells your identity to the highest bidder. Your workplace is compromised by a malicious actor who then releases a database containing your real name. Any place using your social security number for verification is ripe for picking and exposure by people who want to make dirty money with your real self.

Live long enough and you’ll realize in this day and age, the only privacy you really have is your ridiculously expensive accommodation six feet beneath the ground.

#43

It’s not just about privacy. It is about the attempted covert, corporate curation of thoughts and and values across the mass of population. And anyone who doesn’t understand that is underway, doesn’t understand how Google and Facebook now operate.

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#44

“We want devices to be super smart when it comes to helping us know the world around us, but you can’t expect it to magically do so without volunteering some of your own information. Use your real life as an example—you likely have family and friends who know a great deal about you. Sharing that personal information is part and parcel to your relationship. It’s a similar concept with your “personal” devices. Sometimes, it’s just for us to get over the concept of our devices – otherwise inanimate objects – actually becoming intimate strangers in our lives.”

#45

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook are all using the very same sentence in theirs conditions:
“Your privacy is important to us.”
The problem is how you understand this sentence.
Personnally, I have understood that my privacy is very important for them… to collect.

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#46

For those who want chrome-like browser on PC https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium
and on android https://www.bromite.org/

#47

LOL ----------
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help you”
" Listen carefully as our selections have recently changed"
"“The check is in the mail”
“The dog ate my homework”
“You get this round, I’ll pay the next time”
and now…
“Your privacy is important to us”

#48

If you want a better privacy-minded alternative, Vivaldi’s where it’s at IMO. I’m not even expressing it because I have a bias toward them, they’re just the only browser I know of presently which has tab tiling and tab stacking as interface features. It’s a Chrome-alike, but doesn’t have anything Google about it.

If you are confused about both of these concepts, as follows;
Tab tiles lets you see multiple webpages in the same viewport, which means less screwing around with windows.
Tab stacks lets you have multiple pages in the same spatial location of the browser interface. These stacks also have their own miniature tabs within the tab and and present an interactive tooltip showing thumbnails of all tabs within the stack when hovered over.

Stacks can also be tiles automatically, without holding [Ctrl] to specify multiple tabs. It’s been a boon for me as someone who tinkrs with web pages because I can use Stylus alongside another webpage without needing to use a separate display or snap windows.

#49

Just seen this. Made me laugh

privacy-security.jpeg700×510 75.6 KB

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#50

I’m pretty sure vivaldi have their own trackers(or not even their own), while those two i posted about are just chromium browsers wich was cleared from trackers.

#51

This comment from YCombinator explains perfectly my sentiment about Google as a search engine.

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#52

I agree mostly with stevecook172001. What most of you forget is Google and Facebook also brainwash people with get rich quick type of schemes: content marketing, paid ads, etc. Most of these marketing techniques don’t work; look for research papers rather than reading just articles if you don’t believe me. To make matters worse, a lot of the ads are clicked and viewed by bots and not by humans.

Google is definitely intrusive, but for the time being there is no better alternative. Sadly, we’ll have to continue using Google as a search engine.

1 Like
#53

Best check your history. Google is/was not much different than any other real SE. Except Google had much more marketing and brainwashing skills hired to convince everyone to “Google It”, to learn to accept Stalkware as part of the deal to ‘Google it’, and went from being a SE to a giant catalogue of *Googies profiles and privacy for sale.

Google then took over control of what and how a web page should be and then began it’s website popularity contest and those with the money, can be more popular than others.

Google has been caught, fined (cost of doing business for them), and ordered to stop scanning and profiling people based on their G-mail content, but only in the EU, it’s still OK to read your G-mail in North America, South America and Africa. Just that the EU governments respect citizens right to privacy. The others don’t.

Google has been caught fudging searches in favour of political parties, current event controls, and people’s profiles gathered via Google Fonts, and Google Analytics - both Stalkers.

There is a lot more, but if you don’t believe me, don’t “Google It” search for it instead.

IMHO and in my experience in the privacy arena, Google is nothing more than a Stalker - profiling you and selling you to the highest bidders. Just as kidnapped victims often times develop a fondness relationship with their kidnappers, so Googies develop the same with Google. A victim is still a victim.

  • Googie - a follower of Google.
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#54

My history is perfectly accurate on this. I was alive and using computers on a daily basis in the late '90s. I switched to Google because somebody recommended it to me. I’d never heard of it before, never seen a commercial or an advert for it. It was amazing. After that it made no sense to use any other search engine. That’s a fact, one that its main rival (Yahoo) was forced to admit to when it contracted out its searches to Google. Google’s technology was years ahead of the competition.

Since then Google’s interests have grown. You can debate their privacy settings all you want, but please lets not corrupt history to suite your own agenda on this.

Personally I have no problem with their privacy settings. If you don’t want your Gmail account scanned, then don’t use Gmail.

I think I’m done with this thread, the replies are getting more silly.

#55

I’m sorry you have been assimilated and I can only assume that resistance was futile. Say hello to the collective me :slight_smile: They tried it on me, I resisted and escaped and don’t need Googies telling me what to think, say , and do. I am still free… something Google is working on. Mark my words young’un :slight_smile:

For posterity sake, Google is NOT a SE. IMO, it’s a advertising tool to show you what they want you to see. Yahoo came AFTER Altavista, which was after Mozaic, which was after Gopher, which came after Archie - the first search engine. Search it out yourself. Sorry, Googies won’t understand plain English so I’ll rephrase by saying Google it!
My response to the Topic question doesn’t make me wrong. Opinions are never wrong - except in 1945 Germany, the U.S., and some Forums.

Sorry you can’t handle the heat - bye.

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#56

Google (and Amazon, too) supply salted code to web developers everywhere. Most web sites use some Google (and/or Amazon) web site provisioning utilities & supplies. Codesmiths using Google’s version of json or jquery should get them from json.org & jquery.org, instead. Of course, there’s also Google’s various tools & frameworks such as GWT (Google Web Toolkit).

Everything supplied by Google (and Amazon) do, to the best of my knowledge, include trackers that route all the host site’s traffic through Google (and Amazon) servers so they can be examined (though Codesmiths will tell you that it’s just telemetry).

1 Like