Is Google evil?

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Jimmeh

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Ok got it. Google not evil. Smoking some good stuff :sick:
 
Last edited:
Jimmeh said:
The goal of this post is to get opinions. If I am being silly I will let it go but if other tech savvy mybroadband members have the same concerns, man hours will be dedicated to adjusting content filtering at clients to only allow the most basic Google searches.
Click to expand...

they're collecting as much data on everything/everyone as possible, but it's what they do with it in the end that determines if they're evil or not. In any case, i think they're not as bad as FB regarding privacy...

check out http://www.privacychoice.org/ to assess what's being collected on your pc
 
One thing to understand about any service you use is how they make their money and who their customers are.

With Google they make their money selling advertising etc against the data they've collected, and their customers are companies looking for views not their users. Keep that in mind and you won't be surprised by the things Google does.

As to being evil, that was one of Google's biggest mistakes. They should never have included such language in their mission statement.
 
Google will be our Skynet. Jusy you wait till the Androids start communicating with us... and then each other ! :twisted:
 
Jimmeh said:
Is Google evil? What do you guys think?
- MANY websites have google ad code embedded. Did some research and they store all searches and browsing activity per user for 2 years. Have seen google ad traffic(ssl) hit the top 10 sites(based on traffic) on company networks. It’s very chatty. Can’t see what it’s sending back due to encryption (not entirely bad).
Click to expand...

All ads collect info from you not just Google, for one at least Google lets you edit your data: Check out https://www.google.com/dashboard/?hl=en

Jimmeh said:
- They use the same methods as malware to get Chrome installed. Lots of business PC’s have Chrome or at minimum the “GoogleUpdater” service running due to ignorant users clicking “yes” on everything.
Click to expand...

Your idea of malware must be different to mine. Mine is that something pretends to be something that its not. Chrome does what 90% of software do, advice you on better tools like say the browser to speed up your browsing, nothing evil about that.

Jimmeh said:
- Android is a massive focus at DEFCON every year. Much effort is put into improving botnets to ensure that they remain undetected and have little effect on battery life & data usage. It is installed via apps in the Google Play store. Assuming that anything is private on a droid is a horrible mistake – same goes for internal networks that it is connected to via wifi. This is not googles fault but they should take some responsibility to secure their stuff for the trusting “ooh my phone has androids” crowd. They would if they cared about privacy. I’m not knocking android here - it’s a great platform.
Click to expand...

WTF????
1: Android does not hide things in fact its more open on what apps can do compared to other mobile OS's. For one install AppBrain's add detector to see what access every app has. See if you can get that info from say Windows Phone or even iOS?
2: As for Malware, show me one that is now on Google play? Side loading is another story, but again all apps ask you for permissions, not Google's fault if you ignore said warnings and just go yes yes yes.

Jimmeh said:
- They have occasional public fits about countries not respecting their people’s privacy and implementing censorship. All this while censoring search results and collect as much data as they can handle on everyone. Suspect that many people think “oh google is serious about privacy” every time they have these fits – very effective.
Click to expand...

You want to know how Microsoft's Bing fare in this? At least Google is open on that: http://www.google.com/takeaction/past-actions/ and http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/dont-censor-web.html

How do you think Mircosoft or apple would have delt with the recent Muslim YouTube video, esp seeing that they have noo problem blocking things in China. Google at least stood up against China, and was eventually tossed out.

Jimmeh said:
- They admit to scanning mail content on their gmail platform. Not sure how this affects businesses on google apps.
Click to expand...

Microsoft also scan your mail who is more evil, the company that tells you out strait that it does it for better ad targeting or the one that run a ad campaign blackmarking the other "Google Man" yet does the same? Hell even worse, Microsoft wants to see what mood your in: http://adage.com/article/digital/microsoft-files-patent-ad-serving-tech-senses-mood/235336/

TL;DR
Simply put doing something does not make it evil, we all know its an add company making money out of selling ads. Hiding what you doing is evil and so far Google is prity open on that front.
 
No they are not evil.


And what the heck are you thinking here?

- Android is a massive focus at DEFCON every year. Much effort is put into improving botnets to ensure that they remain undetected and have little effect on battery life & data usage. It is installed via apps in the Google Play store. Assuming that anything is private on a droid is a horrible mistake – same goes for internal networks that it is connected to via wifi. This is not googles fault but they should take some responsibility to secure their stuff for the trusting “ooh my phone has androids” crowd. They would if they cared about privacy. I’m not knocking android here - it’s a great platform.
Click to expand...

Smartphone botnets are tiny. Get real, most botnets come from infected windows machines. Also, it wont be a "botnet" effecting battery life. If you were stupid enough to download something with malware on it and it does connect to a botnet (a botnet is a collection of bots, its not a single thing)... it will be a bot/zombie/trojan.

Seems you heard some catch phrases on the internet and are using them like you know what they mean. You clearly dont.

Looks like the forum picked up another conspiracy nutter.
 
If you are afraid of Google, then just don't use them. There are plenty of 'safer/more secure/less privacy intrusive' alternatives available.

Here's a nice good read to keep you awake at night ;):

Wikipedia: Criticism of Google

BTW, this is what I do (sourced from a previous thread post):

Been using startpage.com for a long time now, it's quite nice. There's also ixquick.com, which is from the same company but uses different search engines to metasearch from.

Have a look here: Wikipedia: List of search engines.
DuckDuckGo is also a good option, but they keep logs of IP's if I'm not mistaken.

Also have a look @ Ghostery, Noscript, Better Privacy, Refcontrol, Https Everywhere and Adblock plus with all its english subscriptions.
Go firefox.

Wikipedia.org - Google Chrome Usage Tracking/Do Not Track/Extensions

"Chrome sends details about its usage to Google through both optional and non-optional user tracking mechanisms."

Tracking methods: Information sent - When?

  • Randomly generated token included in installer. Used to measure success rate of Google Chrome once at installation. - On installation
  • Encoded string, according to Google, contains non-identifying information how Chrome was downloaded and its install week, and is used to measure promotional campaigns. Google provides the source code to decode this string. - On Google search query; On first launch and first use of address bar
  • Unique identifier along with logs of usage metrics and crashes. - Unknown
  • Text typed into the address bar - While typing
  • Text typed into the address bar - Upon receiving "Server not found" response
  • Details about crashes and failures - Unknown
  • Information about how often Chrome is used, details about the OS and Chrome version. - Unknown
  • Chrome sends the URL and IP of the host and other meta data, such as the file’s hash and binary size, to Google. - When downloading files

"Some of the tracking mechanisms can be optionally enabled and disabled through the installation interface and through the browser's options dialog. Unofficial builds, such as SRWare Iron and CoolNovo (previously known as ChromePlus), seek to remove these features from the browser altogether. The RLZ feature is not included in the Chromium browser either."

"In March 2010, Google devised a new method to collect installation statistics: the unique ID token included with Chrome is now only used for the first connection that Google Update makes to its server."

"Concern about Chrome's optional usage collection and tracking have been noted in several publications. On September 2, 2008, a CNET news item drew attention to a passage in the Terms of Service statement for the initial beta release, which seemed to grant to Google a license to all content transferred via the Chrome browser. The passage in question was inherited from the general Google terms of service. On the same day, Google responded to this criticism by stating that the language used was borrowed from other products, and removed the passage in question from the Terms of Service. Google noted that this change would "apply retroactively to all users who have downloaded Google Chrome". There was subsequent concern and confusion about whether and what information the program communicates back to Google. The company stated that usage metrics are only sent when users opt in by checking the option "help make Google Chrome better by automatically sending usage statistics and crash reports to Google" when the browser is installed."

"The optional suggestion service included in Google Chrome has been criticized because it provides the information typed into the Omnibox to the search provider before the user even hits return. This allows the search engine to provide URL suggestions, but also provides them with web usage information tied to an IP address. The feature can be selected off in the preferences-under the hood/bonnet-privacy box."

Do Not Track:

"In February 2012, Google announced that Chrome will support Do Not Track by the end of 2012."

Extensions:

"Many Chrome extensions, once installed, have access to the user's data. There are three levels of permissions that an app or extension may request. There is no approval or moderation process for the extensions submitted to the Chrome Web Store."
Click to expand...
 
Jimmeh said:
Ok got it. Google not evil. Smoking some good stuff :sick:
Click to expand...

Why do you post things and remove it then?

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...co.za/vb/showthread.php/474944-Is-Google-evil

Is Google evil?

Is Google evil? What do you guys think?

Stuff that I have noticed:

- MANY websites have google ad code embedded. Did some research and they store all searches and browsing activity per user for 2 years. Have seen google ad traffic(ssl) hit the top 10 sites(based on traffic) on company networks. It’s very chatty. Can’t see what it’s sending back due to encryption (not entirely bad).

- They use the same methods as malware to get Chrome installed. Lots of business PC’s have Chrome or at minimum the “GoogleUpdater” service running due to ignorant users clicking “yes” on everything.

- Android is a massive focus at DEFCON every year. Much effort is put into improving botnets to ensure that they remain undetected and have little effect on battery life & data usage. It is installed via apps in the Google Play store. Assuming that anything is private on a droid is a horrible mistake – same goes for internal networks that it is connected to via wifi. This is not googles fault but they should take some responsibility to secure their stuff for the trusting “ooh my phone has androids” crowd. They would if they cared about privacy. I’m not knocking android here - it’s a great platform.

- They have occasional public fits about countries not respecting their people’s privacy and implementing censorship. All this while censoring search results and collect as much data as they can handle on everyone. Suspect that many people think “oh google is serious about privacy” every time they have these fits – very effective.

- They admit to scanning mail content on their gmail platform. Not sure how this affects businesses on google apps.

The goal of this post is to get opinions. If I am being silly I will let it go but if other tech savvy mybroadband members have the same concerns, man hours will be dedicated to adjusting content filtering at clients to only allow the most basic Google searches.
Click to expand...
 
Bad people do bad things and will do so using any organsisation and system available to them. There are dangers everwhere these days and it is up to organisations to manage all inside them to stay in line with an organisation's code of conduct, policies, procedures, etc. In the work I do (which some calls "evil" ) external and internal auditors are keeping a constant eye on things. I'm sure the likes of Google will do the same. What irritates and worries me far more is the impact of foolish (one could even call it "evil" ) litigation based on a seriously sick patent system in the States.
 
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