5 ms·

Google pivoted? When? And from what to what? Still a company that collects and sells consumer data and ads right?

neogodless 7y ago
Technically "we do not sell your data" ;) "We just have your data, and sell promises to show you exquisitely targeted ads based on our exhaustive data about you."
- umanwizard 7y ago
  That is not a technicality; it is a completely different thing. I would definitely stop using Google if they actually sold my data. I don’t mind them using it for ad targeting.
  - umeshunni 7y ago
    Sure, but as seen many times in the comments here, even 'technical' HN posters seem to not understand the differece.
TulliusCicero 7y ago
Generally, Google does not sell personal data. They use personal data to sell ads.
- antpls 7y ago
  They also forward personal data to government agencies when asked, like it or not.
  - djakjxnanjak 7y ago
    So does the phone company, right? This seems like something everybody should know before they send a text message.
    - fjp 7y ago
      which is why you use iMessage whenever possible
      - bduerst 7y ago
        Doesn't matter if you're a Chinese user on an iPhone: >Fast forward to today: China Telecom, a government owned telco, is taking over the iCloud data from Guizhou-Cloud Big Data. This essentially means that a state-owned firm now has access to all the iCloud data China-based users store, such as photos, notes, emails, and text messages. https://mashable.com/article/china-government-apple-icloud-data/ https://mashable.com/article/china-government-apple-icloud-d...
        fjp 7y ago
        You don't have to back anything up to iCloud. You can keep on your locked device and backup elsewhere. My point was that iMessage is an easy way to have your default mode of messaging be E2E encrypted
  - bduerst 7y ago
    So does every other company when subpoenaed by the government. If they didn't comply, we would be complaining how a corporation feels they are above the law.
ahnick 7y ago
Yes, but now in some of the use cases they demoed the data itself never leaves the device. The AI models are running directly on the device, so there is no need to transmit user data to cloud servers. This is on contrast to all of their apps running in the cloud and your data living centrally off device. I find this new approach to be a nice balance for user privacy and the necessity of data aggregation in order for the models to be constructed.
- cle 7y ago
  Did they say that the data never leaves the device? Just because it's local inference doesn't mean it doesn't leave the device. They have a strong incentive to call home with the transcripts/metadata to improve their model on you. I haven't had the time to wade through the barrage of information Google has put out in the last few days (ironically)...did they explicitly say that?
  - farisjarrah 7y ago
    The explicitly stated in the presentation that all AI modeling data is processes on device, and then only anonymized lessons learned are sent back to google.

Technically "we do not sell your data" ;) "We just have your data, and sell promises to show you exquisitely targeted ads based on our exhaustive data about you."

umanwizard 7y ago
That is not a technicality; it is a completely different thing. I would definitely stop using Google if they actually sold my data. I don’t mind them using it for ad targeting.
- umeshunni 7y ago
  Sure, but as seen many times in the comments here, even 'technical' HN posters seem to not understand the differece.

TulliusCicero 7y ago

Generally, Google does not sell personal data. They use personal data to sell ads.

antpls 7y ago
They also forward personal data to government agencies when asked, like it or not.
- djakjxnanjak 7y ago
  So does the phone company, right? This seems like something everybody should know before they send a text message.
  - fjp 7y ago
    which is why you use iMessage whenever possible
    - bduerst 7y ago
      Doesn't matter if you're a Chinese user on an iPhone: >Fast forward to today: China Telecom, a government owned telco, is taking over the iCloud data from Guizhou-Cloud Big Data. This essentially means that a state-owned firm now has access to all the iCloud data China-based users store, such as photos, notes, emails, and text messages. https://mashable.com/article/china-government-apple-icloud-data/ https://mashable.com/article/china-government-apple-icloud-d...
      - fjp 7y ago
        You don't have to back anything up to iCloud. You can keep on your locked device and backup elsewhere. My point was that iMessage is an easy way to have your default mode of messaging be E2E encrypted
- bduerst 7y ago
  So does every other company when subpoenaed by the government. If they didn't comply, we would be complaining how a corporation feels they are above the law.

ahnick 7y ago

Yes, but now in some of the use cases they demoed the data itself never leaves the device. The AI models are running directly on the device, so there is no need to transmit user data to cloud servers. This is on contrast to all of their apps running in the cloud and your data living centrally off device. I find this new approach to be a nice balance for user privacy and the necessity of data aggregation in order for the models to be constructed.

cle 7y ago
Did they say that the data never leaves the device? Just because it's local inference doesn't mean it doesn't leave the device. They have a strong incentive to call home with the transcripts/metadata to improve their model on you. I haven't had the time to wade through the barrage of information Google has put out in the last few days (ironically)...did they explicitly say that?
- farisjarrah 7y ago
  The explicitly stated in the presentation that all AI modeling data is processes on device, and then only anonymized lessons learned are sent back to google.