<story><title>Google and Facebook are watching our every move online</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/31/google-facebook-data-privacy-concerns-out-of-control-commentary.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>linsomniac</author><text>I feel like I&amp;#x27;m in the minority, but I&amp;#x27;m mostly ok with Google.  I feel like they are good stewards of my data (encrypting even internal traffic, severe restrictions on who can get access to my data, doing useful things with that data).  I believe Facebook has similar policies in place.&lt;p&gt;I think their biggest sins are just being big.  It makes them a larger target (which probably necessitates them taking extreme protections, otherwise they WOULD be taken down).  Others that are much more concerning don&amp;#x27;t get attacked simply because they are smaller.  For example Lyft and Uber who have both been found to have all sorts of personally identifiable information available to random employees.  Or various ISPs tracking of data flowing through it.&lt;p&gt;To me, the cost of being google&amp;#x27;s product, is outweighed by what they provide me with.  Search, news, music, assistant functions, &amp;quot;remember this day&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;here is your family growing up&amp;quot;, e-mail, automation of e-mails into actionable widgets...  These things all are powered by Google knowing kind of a lot about me.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know of any alternative to Google for these services, that respects privacy.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mr_overalls</author><text>You should be worried for these reasons:&lt;p&gt;1) Google (and other SV giants) share data with the NSA.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.salon.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;googles_secret_nsa_alliance_the_terrifying_deals_between_silicon_valley_and_the_security_state&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.salon.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;googles_secret_nsa_alliance...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;2) The NSA in turn shares information with law-enforcement agencies. ICREACH contains information on the private communications millions of American citizens who have not been accused of any wrongdoing.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;gizmodo.com&amp;#x2F;the-nsa-made-its-own-google-to-help-share-your-data-wit-1626652221&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;gizmodo.com&amp;#x2F;the-nsa-made-its-own-google-to-help-shar...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;3) The DEA (and possibly other agencies) uses this information to target Americans, and then lies about the origins of the information in a process called &amp;quot;parallel construction.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;us-dea-sod&amp;#x2F;exclusive-u-s-directs-agents-to-cover-up-program-used-to-investigate-americans-idUSBRE97409R20130805&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;us-dea-sod&amp;#x2F;exclusive-u-s-dir...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not difficult to see the potential for abuse in a shadowy process that surveils the private communications of Americans, applies unknown selectors and data mining algorithms, and then reports the results to law enforcement.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google and Facebook are watching our every move online</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/31/google-facebook-data-privacy-concerns-out-of-control-commentary.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>linsomniac</author><text>I feel like I&amp;#x27;m in the minority, but I&amp;#x27;m mostly ok with Google.  I feel like they are good stewards of my data (encrypting even internal traffic, severe restrictions on who can get access to my data, doing useful things with that data).  I believe Facebook has similar policies in place.&lt;p&gt;I think their biggest sins are just being big.  It makes them a larger target (which probably necessitates them taking extreme protections, otherwise they WOULD be taken down).  Others that are much more concerning don&amp;#x27;t get attacked simply because they are smaller.  For example Lyft and Uber who have both been found to have all sorts of personally identifiable information available to random employees.  Or various ISPs tracking of data flowing through it.&lt;p&gt;To me, the cost of being google&amp;#x27;s product, is outweighed by what they provide me with.  Search, news, music, assistant functions, &amp;quot;remember this day&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;here is your family growing up&amp;quot;, e-mail, automation of e-mails into actionable widgets...  These things all are powered by Google knowing kind of a lot about me.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know of any alternative to Google for these services, that respects privacy.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>blowski</author><text>My concern about Google is not so much now, but maybe 20 years from now when they&amp;#x27;re desperate for revenue. Something akin to Yahoo&amp;#x27;s position in the last few years, except Yahoo didn&amp;#x27;t know almost everything about half the planet.</text></comment>