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It's like saying given how many people the US killed, they have the best war track record. Collecting data on us is not a feature.

shadowgovt 6y ago
> It's like saying given how many people the US killed, they have the best war track record. Hard agree. Countries think twice before engaging the US in open military conflict. The US has a history of ending wars. The analogy breaks down a bit because people in general don't like war, but people in general do like turn-by-turn live navigation on their phones. > Collecting data on us is not a feature Not by itself; it's fuel for features. It's actually the raw fuel that power most of the breakthroughs in machine learning that have brought sci-fi tech to our fingertips. Gmail's spamblocker is built on cross-correlating spam signal from multiple inboxes. Google Ads' fraud detection is built on having enough of a sample of attempted fraud to know what fraud looks like in the abstract. Google Voice works because the company gained access to a massive library of real-world, low-quality voice samples via GOOG-411. Maps gets secondary traffic signal by having maps users ping-back the speed of the car, so it can detect where vehicles have started to crawl in what should be a high-speed area. And of course, search itself is powered by the extremely strong signal coming from people finding what they want via search. Big data collection and interpretation is the core of Google's business model, and it's worked great. People really enjoy the products Google has crafted by collecting data on us.
- BiteCode_dev 6y ago
  And people also like a lot the sugar industrials put in everything. That doesn't make it a good things, nor a moral one.
  - shadowgovt 6y ago
    it also doesn't make it a bad thing, or an immoral one. The story is more complicated than a simple "SUGAR BAD," or a simple "DATA COLLECTION WRONG." Snickers bars are a standard tool in a wilderness survival first-aid kit. The same energy-density-per-unit-mass that makes them a bad choice for day-to-day snack is great when you need a bunch of glucose in a short amount of time.
- efreak 6y ago
  > Google Voice works because the company gained access to a massive library of real-world, low-quality voice samples via GOOG-411. Sorry, what? Google voice is a VoIP service. Maybe you mean Assistant?

shadowgovt 6y ago

> It's like saying given how many people the US killed, they have the best war track record. Hard agree. Countries think twice before engaging the US in open military conflict. The US has a history of ending wars. The analogy breaks down a bit because people in general don't like war, but people in general do like turn-by-turn live navigation on their phones. > Collecting data on us is not a feature Not by itself; it's fuel for features. It's actually the raw fuel that power most of the breakthroughs in machine learning that have brought sci-fi tech to our fingertips. Gmail's spamblocker is built on cross-correlating spam signal from multiple inboxes. Google Ads' fraud detection is built on having enough of a sample of attempted fraud to know what fraud looks like in the abstract. Google Voice works because the company gained access to a massive library of real-world, low-quality voice samples via GOOG-411. Maps gets secondary traffic signal by having maps users ping-back the speed of the car, so it can detect where vehicles have started to crawl in what should be a high-speed area. And of course, search itself is powered by the extremely strong signal coming from people finding what they want via search. Big data collection and interpretation is the core of Google's business model, and it's worked great. People really enjoy the products Google has crafted by collecting data on us.

BiteCode_dev 6y ago
And people also like a lot the sugar industrials put in everything. That doesn't make it a good things, nor a moral one.
- shadowgovt 6y ago
  it also doesn't make it a bad thing, or an immoral one. The story is more complicated than a simple "SUGAR BAD," or a simple "DATA COLLECTION WRONG." Snickers bars are a standard tool in a wilderness survival first-aid kit. The same energy-density-per-unit-mass that makes them a bad choice for day-to-day snack is great when you need a bunch of glucose in a short amount of time.
efreak 6y ago
> Google Voice works because the company gained access to a massive library of real-world, low-quality voice samples via GOOG-411. Sorry, what? Google voice is a VoIP service. Maybe you mean Assistant?