JClishe
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- May 28, 2009
- Messages
- 828
- Reaction score
- 106
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
As for the Google privacy issue, it really isn't that much of an issue if you take a couple of simple precautions.
Personally I think it's an enormous issue. Their entire revenue stream is built on your personal information and that's the basis for every product that they offer. Who you're calling, who you're emailing, what you're taking pictures of, where you physically are located in the world, the kinds of stores you're going to, etc etc. Why do you think they offer the products that they offer, and why do you think that they offer them for free or ridiculously cheap? It's to get you, or more importantly - your data - on their platform, on their servers. To learn as much about you as they possibly can and then monetize that knowledge, that's why. They're an *advertising* company. Not a phone company, not a software company, not an email hoster....an ADVERTISING company. 97% of their revenue comes from advertising. The single, only reason that they're involved in such a wide range of products is to get your data. Period. That's not me being paranoid, that's a fact and Google themselves don't hide that fact. That's their business model, their competitive advantage. Why do you think they're pulling out of health care? Because HIPAA and other regulations make it impossible for them to monetize the data that they have access to through their health care products, so therefore they have no reason to be in the health care vertical.
I agree that you can take some precautions, but my personal issue is the foundation that their entire business model is built on and what I feel is "trickery" and deceipt used to gain access to personal information, at the expense of uninformed consumers. They want consumers to think they have a great email platform, when in reality they only want you on their email platform so they can crawl your emails and sell targetted ads to you (just one example of their business model at work). That's why there isn't a single Google product or website, with the exception of YouTube, that you'll ever catch me using.
But, I'm getting WAY off topic here and my blood starts boiling anytime I think about Google for too long, so I need to go do something else now.