Google is evil.

wsuffa said:
Here's an interesting example of what they can do now (between the carriers, the airlines, and CBP): Link to affidavit. By the way, if you want to read the redacted portions, simply copy the text and drop it into your favorite text editor.
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You gotta love broken redaction techniques. Sheesh.

Judging from the RFP's and RFQ's I saw, this is tame... they were building real-time tapping of massive amounts of raw calls, right into the VoIP back-end systems.

Carriers loved it... they got on board when they realized they got to bill the Feds for the massive fiber bandwidth out of all the PoPs, the cost of the staff sitting there to answer requests, and the Feds gave them full immunity from criminal and civil charges related to improper taps.

Huge circle jerk, and LOTS of money involved.
 
schmookeeg said:
wsuffa said:
Apparently they didn't get the word that Facebook is the most hated company in America.
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When did they surpass Paypal? I must have missed that one :)
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You're both wrong. Comcast is the perennial champion which only got edged out by Bank of America beating BP last year.
http://consumerist.com/2011/04/congratulations-bp-youre-the-worst-company-in-america.html
http://consumerist.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=1&tag=wcia 2011&limit=20
 
I'm just disappointed that everyone is making money on my name (and data) but me. I pay for services and products and am inundated with ads. They'd like you to believe it helps offset their costs but I call BS. How about giving me a discount?
I guess the point is, be careful what you put in emails, opening emails, what you browse and where you browse it, skip facebook, myspace (are they still around), twitter, and chat rooms.
Everybody is looking and most are making money on it.
 
silver-eagle said:
I pay for services and products and am inundated with ads. They'd like you to believe it helps offset their costs but I call BS. How about giving me a discount?
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You pay for Google?

As far as selling information goes, it has been going on for a long time even outside the internet. Ever notice that when you donate to one charity you get solicitations from others? The same thing happens when you buy something out of a catalog.
 
This goes along with what I said in my first response in this thread. Your personal data is everywhere, regardless of what phone company or manufacturer you use.

In this case, your contact info might be leaking out via your friend's phone...

Apple's failure lets developers steal your address book

(Note: This can and probably does happen on Android and other smartphones, too. On Android, a user must explicitly allow an app to have access to the address book, but once allowed, they too could harvest the same data.)
 
silver-eagle said:
I'm just disappointed that everyone is making money on my name (and data) but me. I pay for services and products and am inundated with ads. They'd like you to believe it helps offset their costs but I call BS. How about giving me a discount?
I guess the point is, be careful what you put in emails, opening emails, what you browse and where you browse it, skip facebook, myspace (are they still around), twitter, and chat rooms.
Everybody is looking and most are making money on it.
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"They" have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize the returns for their shareholders. You are not a shareholder.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
"They" have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize the returns for their shareholders. You are not a shareholder.
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And that includes the potential loss of value associated with privacy issues that may lead folks to use the service less, thereby reducing revenues. Part of "maximizing valuation" is "corporate social responsibility". If you think that doesn't matter, see "Bear Stern".
 
wsuffa said:
And that includes the potential loss of value associated with privacy issues that may lead folks to use the service less, thereby reducing revenues. Part of "maximizing valuation" is "corporate social responsibility". If you think that doesn't matter, see "Bear Stern".
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That involves thinking past the current quarter.
 
wsuffa said:
And that includes the potential loss of value associated with privacy issues that may lead folks to use the service less, thereby reducing revenues. Part of "maximizing valuation" is "corporate social responsibility". If you think that doesn't matter, see "Bear Stern".
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And when the average Google User cares enough to vote with their feet, you'll be right.

Sort of like the Komen foundation fiasco. Until this blew up, I wonder how many contributors really realized how little of their money left the foundation?
 
TMetzinger said:
And when the average Google User cares enough to vote with their feet, you'll be right.
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At the rate things are going, the average Google User won't be able to leave the kingdom.

Sort of like the Komen foundation fiasco. Until this blew up, I wonder how many contributors really realized how little of their money left the foundation?
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Or how political the foundation really was....
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
"They" have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize the returns for their shareholders. You are not a shareholder.
Click to expand...

Who says I'm not? ;)

The total addiction (culturally driven) to online services and information sharing has been one of the largest drivers of tech company growth since about 2001.

Just pick the tech companies building the infrastructure.

Kinda like my dad's generation could pick any automotive manufacturer and any large beer brewer.

Mega-trends driven by cultural values are always good investments. Not always great, but good.

Unfortunately I sold Apple at $97. Big. Fat. Chicken. Haha.
 
Google has every e-mail you ever sent or received on Gmail. It has every search you ever made, the contents of every chat you ever had over Google Talk. It holds a record of every telephone conversation you had using Google Voice, it knows every Google Alert you've set up. It has your Google Calendar with all content going back as far as you've used it, including everything you've done every day since then. It knows your contact list with all the information you may have included about yourself and the people you know. It has your Picasa pictures, your news page configuration, indicating what topics you're most interested in. And so on.

If you ever used Google while logged in to your account to search for a person, a symptom, a medical side effect, a political idea; if you ever gossiped using one of Google's services, all of this is on Google's servers. And thanks to the magic of Google's algorithms, it is easy to sift through the information because Google search works like a charm. Google can even track searches on your computer
 
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