The problem becomes old or supposedly unimportant info gets linked by companies such as Acxiom, augmented with what most would assume is unconnectable data but isn't when there's hundreds/thousands of data points available from a multitude of sources, then packaged for a fuller dossier to be resold. ...
You bring this up all the time, trying to make google look "less evil" because other companies do similar data gathering.
--> Just because there are other bad companies around, doesn't make google any less bad. <-- (except in your mind, it seems)
<snip>
But anyway I'm not trying to make Google out as a company that no one should have any concerns about
And yet, that's the way you come across virtually every time you write something here on AI.
and at the same time very properly pointing out that it's a fool's view if thinking they've somehow "protected their privacy" by avoiding Facebook and Google. You seem to focus more on the Google aspect despite the fact they don't sell personal data and on the contrary are exceedingly protective of it, when there are far greater and more directed privacy concerns out there that we unknowingly feed on a regular basis.
I would never, and have never, said that people's privacy is protected if they avoid merely google and fb. Quite the contrary.
However, amongst tech companies that people seem to think are "good guys", google has BY FAR the most profiling data on their users, and that makes them extremely dangerous.
Here's the thing. It's very difficult to avoid being mined by the data broker industry. I can't even stay 100% off their radars, though I'm quite sure my "attack surface" is very tiny compared to most people. But it's relatively easy to avoid the worst of google's mining, by simply not using and signing up for their "free" services. The only legitimate reason to point out shadowy data brokers would be in the hopes of getting legislation passed. That would be great, and I think eventually that may slowly start to happen. But your goal seems to be solely to make google look better *as* *compared* to an industry that is even worse. You're completely missing the point:
--> Independent of all other industries and other internet companies and every other imaginary connection you might come up with, what google does is bad, and the amount of data they control is dangerous.
You bring this up all the time, trying to make google look "less evil" because other companies do similar data gathering.
--> Just because there are other bad companies around, doesn't make google any less bad. <-- (except in your mind, it seems)
Think of it as two gun-owners living in two houses next to you. You don't particularly like guns, been reading about accidents involving careless owners, and thus would rather neither of them had them. You have proof the neighbor on the left has actively threatened your home and your family with his weapons, hides the fact he raids your garden, takes pictures of you from outside your window when you're not looking.
The one on your right is simply a gun-owning neighbor, one you let use your property for growing vegetables for his restaurant. While you might prefer he didn't have those guns he does at least maintain a relationship with you, trading a few things back and forth, profiting off your land in return for some odd and end maintenance jobs around your house.
Even tho there's no guarantee that the right side neighbor will never be a threat to you, afterall he IS a gun-owner and any of them could possibly become a danger someday, which one deserves your attention? Bingo. One is worse than the other.
lol. Sure, I'll play with your analogy.
Me: Semi-automatic weapons are dangerous, let's stop Bushmaster from giving out "free" XM-15s to everyone!
You: But your left side neighbor is worse than your right side neighbor!
Me: I don't care, I don't want either of them to have these kinds of weapons. The more that exist in society at large, the more chance they will be misused, abused, lost, stolen or sold to even less responsible people.
You: But but but, your left side neighbor is worse than your right side neighbor!
Comments
I would never, and have never, said that people's privacy is protected if they avoid merely google and fb. Quite the contrary.
However, amongst tech companies that people seem to think are "good guys", google has BY FAR the most profiling data on their users, and that makes them extremely dangerous.
Here's the thing. It's very difficult to avoid being mined by the data broker industry. I can't even stay 100% off their radars, though I'm quite sure my "attack surface" is very tiny compared to most people. But it's relatively easy to avoid the worst of google's mining, by simply not using and signing up for their "free" services. The only legitimate reason to point out shadowy data brokers would be in the hopes of getting legislation passed. That would be great, and I think eventually that may slowly start to happen. But your goal seems to be solely to make google look better *as* *compared* to an industry that is even worse. You're completely missing the point:
--> Independent of all other industries and other internet companies and every other imaginary connection you might come up with, what google does is bad, and the amount of data they control is dangerous.
Me: Semi-automatic weapons are dangerous, let's stop Bushmaster from giving out "free" XM-15s to everyone!
You: But your left side neighbor is worse than your right side neighbor!
Me: I don't care, I don't want either of them to have these kinds of weapons. The more that exist in society at large, the more chance they will be misused, abused, lost, stolen or sold to even less responsible people.
You: But but but, your left side neighbor is worse than your right side neighbor!
Me: Clearly you're not listening.