Originally Posted by
Gatorguy 
Yet the worst that happens is you receive a relevant ad. No threatening letters, no blackmail, no late night calls to your significant other, no messages to your boss on your after-work activities. No dossier on your travels, no reporting to the IRS, no mysterious men-in-black.
No, serving up ads is practically a "who cares". The worst that can happen?
- Goog management changes (and that WILL happen), bringing usage and policy changes;
- laws can change to allow unfettered access to that data by any government agency (probably will happen at some point, given the trajectory our nation is on);
- big break-ins do happen (has already happened at some level, by Chinese interests)
There are many bad things that can happen merely by having that amount of detailed data available in one place. And no, you're not seeing all the data when you look at your dashboard. I know even you don't believe that.
Personally I find Facebook much more intrusive, and seemingly for unclear reasons that go beyond serving up relevant ads. If Google was still bed partners with Apple there would be few if any complaints about them, just as few here complain about Facebook.
Facebook is just as bad, in fact I'd say their attitude about privacy is even worse than Google. Google at least attempts to not hand off everyone's data to anyone that wants it. But that's very different from saying it's a good idea to have all that data in one place.
The difference is that, with a bit of effort, one can almost completely stay invisible from Facebook. Just don't use their service, and install a few filters in your browser, etc. Because of the level of integration Google has with other sites and services on the internet, especially email, that's nearly impossible, even for a dedicated, diligent person.
Let me ask a simple question:
If Google is so evil, stealing every bit of information they can from you, intruding on your privacy at every opportunity, why is Apple turning you over to them in return for 30 pieces of silver? What would that make Apple?
I don't expect a single one of the resident fear-mongers to answer those questions. I doubt any of them have the cajones.
No, mostly people aren't going to respond to you because you've made it clear that your views are so one-sided that it's generally not worth arguing.
But I'll bite. A little.
As others have already said, there's a huge difference between integrating another company's top-notch service into your product and having your entire business model dependent upon being a giant hoover of private data. I don't think anyone would argue that Google search wasn't the best general-purpose search engine in the world at the time it was hooked into iOS, and it probably still is (though the differential has certainly decreased) for most people. Regardless of any payments, Apple chose the path that gave their users the best product. They made a counter-mistake with Maps, but it was more about premature delivery than strategy. Google wouldn't provide the same mapping services to iOS that they did for Android, so it was again clear that Apple at least tries to act in the best interest of their customers.
So here's the bottom line, and we'll see if you have the cajones to address this:
I'm not company-biased or hypocritical. NO ONE should have the kind of personal profile data that a handful of companies are accumulating, and that includes Apple.
But I can, and do, use Apple's products without giving them a single bit of personal data. Ever. Yes, it takes a bit of effort, but can you do that with Google? No, it's impossible because their entire business model is dependent on that data. They are very, very clever about how they marry data from various sources together, and because of the high level of integration across many services and the vast majority of web sites, they are in a unique position to do this. Apple makes most of their money from hardware sales (which you can buy at thousands of locations, with good old cash if you like), secondarily from services that you don't need to use, or can use anonymously (with iTunes cards, for example, you don't even need to use a real name).
THAT is why Apple is a better company from a privacy standpoint than Google.
Edited by Blah64 - 2/24/13 at 11:47am
