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I don't know what's inherently so bad about "being a google user". It's mostly paranoia. If the only hypothetical disadvantage you're thinking about it is "Goog

I don't know what's inherently so bad about "being a google user". It's mostly paranoia. If the only hypothetical disadvantage you're thinking about it is "Google might shut down one day", then you're not thinking about a very near future. If the TV channels shut down tomorrow, your TVs effectively stop working too, you still buy them. There are hundreds of such devices out there, which you buy because it's pretty evident the company is not shutting down tomorrow. On the other hand, even if Google shuts down, a lot of things on your Chromebook will keep on working offline, especially with the advent of Android apps now.

stephenr 10y ago
> I don't know what's inherently so bad about "being a google user". Having every facet of your digital life mined for personal data, for the sake of a mega-corp's bottom line? > If the only hypothetical disadvantage you're thinking about it is "Google might shut down one day" Not at all. Its actually more likely "Google might stop supporting X, Y or Z that you depend on".. They, you know, have a history of doing that. However, let's play along anyway. > If the TV channels shut down tomorrow, your TVs effectively stop working too, you still buy them. No. Just. No. I literally don't remember the last time I watched broadcast television (hotels excepted), even when I lived in a country where I could understand what was being said on the broadcast channels. In our last house 1 of 2 TV's was connected to a satellite receiver for when my father in law was in the house. We moved 3-4 months ago. No satellite dish hooked up yet. No terrestrial aerial. > There are hundreds of such devices out there, which you buy because it's pretty evident the company is not shutting down tomorrow. I do? Would you care to enlighten me about these devices I apparently buy? > On the other hand, even if Google shuts down, a lot of things on your Chromebook will keep on working offline Are you kidding me? In offline-mode, you can't even edit your calendar on a Chromebook. You're also not thinking about things like e.g. users on the system. It's inherently dependent on Google - you can't just add a local account like you can with a regular computer, you have to be online, with the person sitting there next to you, so they can sign in with their own google account. > especially with the advent of Android apps now Right, because apps designed to work on a mobile phone, which generally has it's own data connection independent of whether wifi is available or not, will just naturally assume they need to work offline. Good luck with that.
- imtringued 10y ago
  The only problem with "data mining" is the government, not corporations. The corporations use that data to only do one single thing: give you personalised ads. However the government could pass new laws and prosecute you for things you have done 20 years ago on the internet.
  - kuschku 10y ago
    Have you missed out on the past few years of news? Facebook has admitted to having manipulated which articles showed up in your news stream, and in which order, to test if they could manipulate the mood of their users. There was even a discussion about it on here.
  - DanBC 10y ago
    That's a particular viewpoint that isn't shared by, for example, Europe, where my data is mine, and a corporation gets to use it with my permission. They need to tell me that they gather it, and why they gather it, and what they do with it, and they have to only keep it for as long as necessary. There are protections for me if a corporation sells my data without my permission or misuses my data.
  - beefield 10y ago
    Is there something stopping these corporations to do anything else with the data? I can imagine recruiters willing to pay on some educational information/analysis. I can also imagine corporations selling credit rating information based on the data on the individuals they have. And these were after thinking about 25 seconds of possible valuable use cases on data.
  - dzamo_norton 10y ago
    You draw a clean divide but be wary of things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism
- piyush_soni 10y ago
  All the places where you have taken "you" literally as yourself, I didn't mean that. I meant people in general. And I wrote "a lot", not "all" the things will keep on working Chromebook (in an hypothetical situation Google shuts down). > Right, because apps designed to work on a mobile phone, which generally has it's own data connection independent of whether wifi is available or not, will just naturally assume they need to work offline. Good luck with that. Yes, the same mobile phones which also have an airplane mode.
millstone 10y ago
There are some particularly concerning scenarios: 1. Google collects and stores information about my children, and it is released (by accident or otherwise) 2. Google profits off my childrens' education, has financial incentives not aligned with those of my family but mostly I just think it's really fucking creepy for an advertising broker to be building up a profile of a first grade child, and I think maybe schools shouldn't become reliant on an ad company to help deliver education. To assuage my concerns, Chromebooks should be usable without creating a Google ID. Or maybe the whole school should have a single ID used by all students.

stephenr 10y ago

> I don't know what's inherently so bad about "being a google user". Having every facet of your digital life mined for personal data, for the sake of a mega-corp's bottom line? > If the only hypothetical disadvantage you're thinking about it is "Google might shut down one day" Not at all. Its actually more likely "Google might stop supporting X, Y or Z that you depend on".. They, you know, have a history of doing that. However, let's play along anyway. > If the TV channels shut down tomorrow, your TVs effectively stop working too, you still buy them. No. Just. No. I literally don't remember the last time I watched broadcast television (hotels excepted), even when I lived in a country where I could understand what was being said on the broadcast channels. In our last house 1 of 2 TV's was connected to a satellite receiver for when my father in law was in the house. We moved 3-4 months ago. No satellite dish hooked up yet. No terrestrial aerial. > There are hundreds of such devices out there, which you buy because it's pretty evident the company is not shutting down tomorrow. I do? Would you care to enlighten me about these devices I apparently buy? > On the other hand, even if Google shuts down, a lot of things on your Chromebook will keep on working offline Are you kidding me? In offline-mode, you can't even edit your calendar on a Chromebook. You're also not thinking about things like e.g. users on the system. It's inherently dependent on Google - you can't just add a local account like you can with a regular computer, you have to be online, with the person sitting there next to you, so they can sign in with their own google account. > especially with the advent of Android apps now Right, because apps designed to work on a mobile phone, which generally has it's own data connection independent of whether wifi is available or not, will just naturally assume they need to work offline. Good luck with that.

imtringued 10y ago
The only problem with "data mining" is the government, not corporations. The corporations use that data to only do one single thing: give you personalised ads. However the government could pass new laws and prosecute you for things you have done 20 years ago on the internet.
- kuschku 10y ago
  Have you missed out on the past few years of news? Facebook has admitted to having manipulated which articles showed up in your news stream, and in which order, to test if they could manipulate the mood of their users. There was even a discussion about it on here.
- DanBC 10y ago
  That's a particular viewpoint that isn't shared by, for example, Europe, where my data is mine, and a corporation gets to use it with my permission. They need to tell me that they gather it, and why they gather it, and what they do with it, and they have to only keep it for as long as necessary. There are protections for me if a corporation sells my data without my permission or misuses my data.
- beefield 10y ago
  Is there something stopping these corporations to do anything else with the data? I can imagine recruiters willing to pay on some educational information/analysis. I can also imagine corporations selling credit rating information based on the data on the individuals they have. And these were after thinking about 25 seconds of possible valuable use cases on data.
- dzamo_norton 10y ago
  You draw a clean divide but be wary of things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism
piyush_soni 10y ago
All the places where you have taken "you" literally as yourself, I didn't mean that. I meant people in general. And I wrote "a lot", not "all" the things will keep on working Chromebook (in an hypothetical situation Google shuts down). > Right, because apps designed to work on a mobile phone, which generally has it's own data connection independent of whether wifi is available or not, will just naturally assume they need to work offline. Good luck with that. Yes, the same mobile phones which also have an airplane mode.

millstone 10y ago

There are some particularly concerning scenarios: 1. Google collects and stores information about my children, and it is released (by accident or otherwise) 2. Google profits off my childrens' education, has financial incentives not aligned with those of my family but mostly I just think it's really fucking creepy for an advertising broker to be building up a profile of a first grade child, and I think maybe schools shouldn't become reliant on an ad company to help deliver education. To assuage my concerns, Chromebooks should be usable without creating a Google ID. Or maybe the whole school should have a single ID used by all students.