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"Sure, they collect a bunch of your data, but it's for the purpose of them being able to serve more relevant ads to you if I'm not mistaken, since that's where

"Sure, they collect a bunch of your data, but it's for the purpose of them being able to serve more relevant ads to you if I'm not mistaken, since that's where most of their money is made." You gloss over this as if its not a big deal.

techrat 12y ago
Please cite examples in which Google has demonstrated that they could not be trusted with information that they use to deliver targeted ads to you. Did they ever pull a Facebook-esque social experiment by trying to limit what you saw in order to manipulate your feelings over the course of a day? Do they sell personal information about you for other companies to use however they please? Think about this a little bit before you respond with a generic, mouth frothing "BUT GOOGLES SELLS YER INFO" when they actually don't. They sell access to you when you are exposed to ads. Not access to your info.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  > Did they ever pull a Facebook-esque social experiment by trying to limit what you saw in order to manipulate your feelings over the course of a day? I'd also like to point out that the drama around Facebook's social experiment was totally overblown. People essentially mixed up what Facebook did (something not unlike an A/B test) with what some imagined Facebook in theory could do (silently but significantly influence emotional state of users), and after articles started calling this "manipulating your feelings" the Internet totally lost it. After all, the extent to which Facebook "manipulated your feelings over the course of a day" is much smaller than, say, 9gag's or that of a television ad. This is the same problem as the one you're complaining about here - generic accusations about totally overblown things.
- ZanyProgrammer 12y ago
  By your logic, since AFAIK the NSA hasn't ever targeted me specifically, then they must be a okay!
  - techrat 12y ago
    >By your logic, since AFAIK the NSA hasn't ever targeted me specifically, then they must be a okay! An exact example of the false equivalence fallacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence
TeMPOraL 12y ago
Well, is it? Personally, I am beginning to fear that the whole idea of privacy starts to block progress and in the end we'll have to choose between the two. Apart from the dystopian future everyone fears, there are also astoundingly huge amounts of good things that can happen thanks to data companies like Google or Facebook collect.

techrat 12y ago

Please cite examples in which Google has demonstrated that they could not be trusted with information that they use to deliver targeted ads to you. Did they ever pull a Facebook-esque social experiment by trying to limit what you saw in order to manipulate your feelings over the course of a day? Do they sell personal information about you for other companies to use however they please? Think about this a little bit before you respond with a generic, mouth frothing "BUT GOOGLES SELLS YER INFO" when they actually don't. They sell access to you when you are exposed to ads. Not access to your info.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
> Did they ever pull a Facebook-esque social experiment by trying to limit what you saw in order to manipulate your feelings over the course of a day? I'd also like to point out that the drama around Facebook's social experiment was totally overblown. People essentially mixed up what Facebook did (something not unlike an A/B test) with what some imagined Facebook in theory could do (silently but significantly influence emotional state of users), and after articles started calling this "manipulating your feelings" the Internet totally lost it. After all, the extent to which Facebook "manipulated your feelings over the course of a day" is much smaller than, say, 9gag's or that of a television ad. This is the same problem as the one you're complaining about here - generic accusations about totally overblown things.
ZanyProgrammer 12y ago
By your logic, since AFAIK the NSA hasn't ever targeted me specifically, then they must be a okay!
- techrat 12y ago
  >By your logic, since AFAIK the NSA hasn't ever targeted me specifically, then they must be a okay! An exact example of the false equivalence fallacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence

TeMPOraL 12y ago

Well, is it? Personally, I am beginning to fear that the whole idea of privacy starts to block progress and in the end we'll have to choose between the two. Apart from the dystopian future everyone fears, there are also astoundingly huge amounts of good things that can happen thanks to data companies like Google or Facebook collect.