4 ms·

My divorce from Google - One year later

17 points by jotaass 13y ago

harel 13y ago
To me this smell like paranoia for paranoia's sake. No real valid reason for it. So Google track you. Everybody tracks you. Its the nature of the web. If you don't get tracked you will still see ads. They'll just be random. At least you have a chance of seeing something you might actually be interested in. And really the bottom line is that all of this internet-scale costs money. And since we are a bit touchy about paying for stuff we take for granted these days, like 'search' and 'social' or 'maps', we might as well accept the ads and get on with it. Why would I want to use an OK service for maps or translation when I can use a Great one from another provider even if they track me. (by the way, should we tell him that Facebook, Yahoo and in future most likely DuckDuckGo too, tracks him in the same way or let him figure it out by himself over time?)
- holri 13y ago
  It is not about ads. It's about personal private data. For ads, anonymous targeting would suffice. No one can garantee that this personal private data is used for ads only. It is usefull for a lot of ugly things. And therefore it will (is?) used for them.
  - harel 13y ago
    Yes but no one can really guarantee anything on the internet. What I don't want Big G' to know, won't go on line and if it has to, it will be done right. The only thing is, there's not much I can think of that I'd really give a #u!@ if G' Man is in on it or not. I don't have a deep rooted principles regarding this leading my life and ultimately restring my movement. I use what I use, until its no longer useful, and I'm well aware that what I use is also using me. Fair exchange I think. H
    - holri 13y ago
      The power comes from combination. Even very small bits of information in your email, photo tags, searches can build a very precise picture of your personality if there are a lot of them. You can not control the small information bits that go to Google if you are using their tools. This is a dangerous illusion. The solution is to limit the overall amount of information leaking and diversity. Therefore not using Google or other well known data mining companies at all. And yes it is possible.
      - harel 13y ago
        But what is one to do, when a large collection of tools from one provider ends up being superior to others? I'm not religious, and if someone offered me a better-than-Gmail alternative that works better for me, I'd take it. Give me a better search engine - I'm there. In the same way that I'm using Facebook and not G+ because I find the party is better over there with all of my friends.
        holri 13y ago
        It is called a trap.
        harel 13y ago
        Not if you don't feel trapped nor care about it being so. Every service coming up with a superior level product which then has to support it at scale will have to resort to charging users or showing them ads and using their 'data' as a channel to target ads by. Yes Google is a trap and so is Facebook, skype, iOs, windows, mac, linux. You choose what you like to use, get used to it or not find anything better and are trapped with it. Until you chose not to because you are either paranoid or something better came to be.
        holri 13y ago
        No Linux is not a trap, because it is Free Software. Freedom is the contrary to a trap.
- electrichead 13y ago
  I am ok with targeted ads. I actually think that most people would be ok with targeted ads too, since a lot of my searches would have been averted by a good well-placed ad. For instance, I see something on TV that I want to buy; I have to Google "what was so-and-so character wearing in this episode" or search for the soundtrack to a particular ad. These are things that could have been targeted to me. A pure audio ad that plays 10 seconds of a song from an artist's new album is an effective ad, if that is an artist I actually like. Targetting is not a bad thing when done right.
risratorn 13y ago
Well it's all just a mater of personal taste but tbh ... when someone says "GPS. I don't use it, even in a car. I'm old-school as I like printed maps." I don't find it that surprising he has no trouble letting stuff like gmail, google maps and google search go. It can be done, but for some it's easier as for others.
Aardwolf 13y ago
The strange thing is that despite this, the author uses Facebook and Amazon and stuff. Weird selective exclusion based on whatever. Each to their own I guess.
- simonh 13y ago
  When you have high expectations and they are not met (or sometimes even just have the appearance of not being met) that feels a lot worse than when you have low expectations which are met. Hence if Google does something even close to being interpreted as being evil if you squint hard enough, they are ditched in favour of Facebook. If workers on iPhone production lines have tough working conditions, even if they're better than the working conditions on the Samsung lines and are better paid, you still get people swearing to buy a Galaxy next instead. It's just human nature.
yanw 13y ago
This was dusscissed here a few hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5476812 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5476812 HN ought to weed duplicates better.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jotaass 13y ago
  Submitter here. I did search for it first, but I clearly did a poor job. Apologies for that.
writtles 13y ago
>Some friends followed my example onto other social media sites. Not many. Perhaps they weren't really friends. Wow, OP really feels his friends chose Google over the friendship?

17 points by jotaass 13y ago

harel 13y ago

To me this smell like paranoia for paranoia's sake. No real valid reason for it. So Google track you. Everybody tracks you. Its the nature of the web. If you don't get tracked you will still see ads. They'll just be random. At least you have a chance of seeing something you might actually be interested in. And really the bottom line is that all of this internet-scale costs money. And since we are a bit touchy about paying for stuff we take for granted these days, like 'search' and 'social' or 'maps', we might as well accept the ads and get on with it. Why would I want to use an OK service for maps or translation when I can use a Great one from another provider even if they track me. (by the way, should we tell him that Facebook, Yahoo and in future most likely DuckDuckGo too, tracks him in the same way or let him figure it out by himself over time?)

holri 13y ago
It is not about ads. It's about personal private data. For ads, anonymous targeting would suffice. No one can garantee that this personal private data is used for ads only. It is usefull for a lot of ugly things. And therefore it will (is?) used for them.
- harel 13y ago
  Yes but no one can really guarantee anything on the internet. What I don't want Big G' to know, won't go on line and if it has to, it will be done right. The only thing is, there's not much I can think of that I'd really give a #u!@ if G' Man is in on it or not. I don't have a deep rooted principles regarding this leading my life and ultimately restring my movement. I use what I use, until its no longer useful, and I'm well aware that what I use is also using me. Fair exchange I think. H
  - holri 13y ago
    The power comes from combination. Even very small bits of information in your email, photo tags, searches can build a very precise picture of your personality if there are a lot of them. You can not control the small information bits that go to Google if you are using their tools. This is a dangerous illusion. The solution is to limit the overall amount of information leaking and diversity. Therefore not using Google or other well known data mining companies at all. And yes it is possible.
    - harel 13y ago
      But what is one to do, when a large collection of tools from one provider ends up being superior to others? I'm not religious, and if someone offered me a better-than-Gmail alternative that works better for me, I'd take it. Give me a better search engine - I'm there. In the same way that I'm using Facebook and not G+ because I find the party is better over there with all of my friends.
      - holri 13y ago
        It is called a trap.
        harel 13y ago
        Not if you don't feel trapped nor care about it being so. Every service coming up with a superior level product which then has to support it at scale will have to resort to charging users or showing them ads and using their 'data' as a channel to target ads by. Yes Google is a trap and so is Facebook, skype, iOs, windows, mac, linux. You choose what you like to use, get used to it or not find anything better and are trapped with it. Until you chose not to because you are either paranoid or something better came to be.
        holri 13y ago
        No Linux is not a trap, because it is Free Software. Freedom is the contrary to a trap.
electrichead 13y ago
I am ok with targeted ads. I actually think that most people would be ok with targeted ads too, since a lot of my searches would have been averted by a good well-placed ad. For instance, I see something on TV that I want to buy; I have to Google "what was so-and-so character wearing in this episode" or search for the soundtrack to a particular ad. These are things that could have been targeted to me. A pure audio ad that plays 10 seconds of a song from an artist's new album is an effective ad, if that is an artist I actually like. Targetting is not a bad thing when done right.

risratorn 13y ago

Well it's all just a mater of personal taste but tbh ... when someone says "GPS. I don't use it, even in a car. I'm old-school as I like printed maps." I don't find it that surprising he has no trouble letting stuff like gmail, google maps and google search go. It can be done, but for some it's easier as for others.

Aardwolf 13y ago

The strange thing is that despite this, the author uses Facebook and Amazon and stuff. Weird selective exclusion based on whatever. Each to their own I guess.

simonh 13y ago
When you have high expectations and they are not met (or sometimes even just have the appearance of not being met) that feels a lot worse than when you have low expectations which are met. Hence if Google does something even close to being interpreted as being evil if you squint hard enough, they are ditched in favour of Facebook. If workers on iPhone production lines have tough working conditions, even if they're better than the working conditions on the Samsung lines and are better paid, you still get people swearing to buy a Galaxy next instead. It's just human nature.

yanw 13y ago

This was dusscissed here a few hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5476812 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5476812 HN ought to weed duplicates better.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jotaass 13y ago
Submitter here. I did search for it first, but I clearly did a poor job. Apologies for that.

writtles 13y ago

>Some friends followed my example onto other social media sites. Not many. Perhaps they weren't really friends. Wow, OP really feels his friends chose Google over the friendship?