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I really don't understand the thought process here. Judging by public statements, Google is one of the 3 big western AI companies. Surely they should be rollin

by dminik 1mo ago

I really don't understand the thought process here. Judging by public statements, Google is one of the 3 big western AI companies. Surely they should be rolling in cash and working hard towards AGI. And yet, for whatever reason, they can't help themselves from further restricting user freedoms on Android. Why? I don't want to be conspiratorial, but surely it's not money, right? It has to be control. Someone high up at Google just seems to resent people having control over their own devices.

shalom1112 1mo ago
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KetoManx64 1mo ago
Both. Google has plenty of government contracts, they are undoubtedly pushing for more surveillance, and also on the inverse side, we are now in an age where users can create their own apps to do whatever they want within a few hours, sothis risks their Google Play Store profits
- gruez 1mo ago
  >Both. Google has plenty of government contracts, they are undoubtedly pushing for more surveillance, I don't get it, are the government contracts somehow contingent on them oppressing users and stifling open source? >we are now in an age where users can create their own apps to do whatever they want within a few hours, sothis risks their Google Play Store profits If that's the reason, they're doing a pretty poor job, since it's trivially bypassable by running "adb install".
  - ivell 1mo ago
    It probably is slow-boiling. Many things have been slow-boiled for so long that majority of us were caught sleeping at the wheels. The day probably would come where Google does open sourcing just for namesake that too for insignificant piece of software. And other companies will follow suite. There would be time where everything thing will locked up and monitored. I am so thankful that the PC revolution happened way before app stores and there was a period of open source culture and open formats etc.
tliltocatl 1mo ago
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palata 1mo ago
I genuinely believe that any human getting enough power (e.g. by moving up in a big company) tends to become a toxic asshole (without even noticing themselves). So that's one explanation. On top of that, I believe that the sum of the actions of well-meaning people doesn't always result in something good. In big companies like Google, I'm sure that many people are taking decisions that they think are well-meaning, but the result is that Google is a toxic entity. In other words, because Google sucks doesn't mean that all Google employees are evil. Many of them just take their high salary and try to do well, conveniently ignoring that they contribute to a toxic entity.

by dminik 1mo ago

shalom1112 1mo ago

[dead]

KetoManx64 1mo ago

Both. Google has plenty of government contracts, they are undoubtedly pushing for more surveillance, and also on the inverse side, we are now in an age where users can create their own apps to do whatever they want within a few hours, sothis risks their Google Play Store profits

gruez 1mo ago
>Both. Google has plenty of government contracts, they are undoubtedly pushing for more surveillance, I don't get it, are the government contracts somehow contingent on them oppressing users and stifling open source? >we are now in an age where users can create their own apps to do whatever they want within a few hours, sothis risks their Google Play Store profits If that's the reason, they're doing a pretty poor job, since it's trivially bypassable by running "adb install".
- ivell 1mo ago
  It probably is slow-boiling. Many things have been slow-boiled for so long that majority of us were caught sleeping at the wheels. The day probably would come where Google does open sourcing just for namesake that too for insignificant piece of software. And other companies will follow suite. There would be time where everything thing will locked up and monitored. I am so thankful that the PC revolution happened way before app stores and there was a period of open source culture and open formats etc.

tliltocatl 1mo ago

[dead]

palata 1mo ago

I genuinely believe that any human getting enough power (e.g. by moving up in a big company) tends to become a toxic asshole (without even noticing themselves). So that's one explanation. On top of that, I believe that the sum of the actions of well-meaning people doesn't always result in something good. In big companies like Google, I'm sure that many people are taking decisions that they think are well-meaning, but the result is that Google is a toxic entity. In other words, because Google sucks doesn't mean that all Google employees are evil. Many of them just take their high salary and try to do well, conveniently ignoring that they contribute to a toxic entity.