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Maybe I'm crazy, but I figure that Google has way more personal and in-depth information on me. Maybe I like a few political posts and share some recipes on Fac

Maybe I'm crazy, but I figure that Google has way more personal and in-depth information on me. Maybe I like a few political posts and share some recipes on Facebook. But people search their deepest, darkest questions on Google while logged in to their Google account. Every email I have sent and received is on Google. Google tracks my location 24 hours a day. Google stores my work documents. Google knows every video I've watched on YouTube. Google has every photo that my phone takes.

davidwihl 9y ago
But they do a better job of keeping that information private, whereas Facebook provided the actual data to their partners and advertisers.
- ksk 9y ago
  Not for long ! https://marketingland.com/google-publishers-user-data-insights-engine-project-225452 https://marketingland.com/google-publishers-user-data-insigh... >Among the announcements was the launch of a new effort to share user data with publishers and introduce more machine learning into Google’s publisher products. https://doubleclick-publishers.googleblog.com/2017/10/building-for-beyond-with-insights.html https://doubleclick-publishers.googleblog.com/2017/10/buildi...
  - davidwihl 9y ago
    It specifically says "aggregated and anonymized" data, not personal data. Even then, I imagine with the Facebook backlash, this will be heavily scrutinized.
    - ksk 9y ago
      Did FB really give out personal data? In any case, do we even have an understanding of what is meant by anonymized data (when applied to specific datasets) anyway? I sometimes wonder if any of these firms could call it anonymized by changing the name on the profile to somebody's initials.
      - davidwihl 9y ago
        Yep, they really gave out the data. One example is "instant personalization" where Facebook partners would get full copies of Facebook user data including images, likes, friends, etc. It was turned on by default without user notification. https://www.privacytrust.com/guidance/facebook_instant_personalization.html https://www.privacytrust.com/guidance/facebook_instant_perso... http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-instant-personalization-how-to-disable-it-and-why/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-instant-personalizatio...
        ksk 9y ago
        Ah, I was thinking about the Cambrige analytica story, and specifically handing over data which we have no control over. But you're right to point out they used to have 'share by default' on some data.
collyw 9y ago
I have considered moving to another email provider, but the fact is that maybe half of my emails will be sent to Google addresses. So they will still get my information. I have an Outlook account at work and the search is crap in comparison to Googles - which is another reason tying me to Google for the time being.
- news_to_me 9y ago
  Check out Fastmail. A year ago I switched from Gmail, and slowly people started using my new email (I had gmail forward all other mail to the new mailbox). Now I hardly get any through Gmail. The search is pretty good and the UI is nice. Maybe you'll prefer Gmail, but it's worth a try at least.
panarky 9y ago
The point is that you have choices with Google that you don't have with Facebook. You don't have to use Gmail. You don't have to store work documents in Drive. You don't have to log in to watch YouTube. You don't have to use Google Photos. But for social networking, what choice do people have when no other service has even 5% of Facebook's social graph?
- brandon272 9y ago
  As much as someone can ditch Gmail for a POP3 account at some other email provider, someone can just as easily not use Facebook and communicate with people through email, SMS, iMessage, etc. I do have to store my email and work documents on Google as it's the platform my employer uses.

davidwihl 9y ago

But they do a better job of keeping that information private, whereas Facebook provided the actual data to their partners and advertisers.

ksk 9y ago
Not for long ! https://marketingland.com/google-publishers-user-data-insights-engine-project-225452 https://marketingland.com/google-publishers-user-data-insigh... >Among the announcements was the launch of a new effort to share user data with publishers and introduce more machine learning into Google’s publisher products. https://doubleclick-publishers.googleblog.com/2017/10/building-for-beyond-with-insights.html https://doubleclick-publishers.googleblog.com/2017/10/buildi...
- davidwihl 9y ago
  It specifically says "aggregated and anonymized" data, not personal data. Even then, I imagine with the Facebook backlash, this will be heavily scrutinized.
  - ksk 9y ago
    Did FB really give out personal data? In any case, do we even have an understanding of what is meant by anonymized data (when applied to specific datasets) anyway? I sometimes wonder if any of these firms could call it anonymized by changing the name on the profile to somebody's initials.
    - davidwihl 9y ago
      Yep, they really gave out the data. One example is "instant personalization" where Facebook partners would get full copies of Facebook user data including images, likes, friends, etc. It was turned on by default without user notification. https://www.privacytrust.com/guidance/facebook_instant_personalization.html https://www.privacytrust.com/guidance/facebook_instant_perso... http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-instant-personalization-how-to-disable-it-and-why/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-instant-personalizatio...
      - ksk 9y ago
        Ah, I was thinking about the Cambrige analytica story, and specifically handing over data which we have no control over. But you're right to point out they used to have 'share by default' on some data.

collyw 9y ago

I have considered moving to another email provider, but the fact is that maybe half of my emails will be sent to Google addresses. So they will still get my information. I have an Outlook account at work and the search is crap in comparison to Googles - which is another reason tying me to Google for the time being.

news_to_me 9y ago
Check out Fastmail. A year ago I switched from Gmail, and slowly people started using my new email (I had gmail forward all other mail to the new mailbox). Now I hardly get any through Gmail. The search is pretty good and the UI is nice. Maybe you'll prefer Gmail, but it's worth a try at least.

panarky 9y ago

The point is that you have choices with Google that you don't have with Facebook. You don't have to use Gmail. You don't have to store work documents in Drive. You don't have to log in to watch YouTube. You don't have to use Google Photos. But for social networking, what choice do people have when no other service has even 5% of Facebook's social graph?

brandon272 9y ago
As much as someone can ditch Gmail for a POP3 account at some other email provider, someone can just as easily not use Facebook and communicate with people through email, SMS, iMessage, etc. I do have to store my email and work documents on Google as it's the platform my employer uses.