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Comment by amlgsmsn | Hacker News Reader

I hope they start with Android and Google Maps on iOS where Google tracks which stores you visit when you have your phone with you.

http://9to5google.com/2013/11/11/google-tracking-your-store-...

If you disable it, Google Now stops working.

Or with Chromebooks, where everything is forced to be stored in Google's cloud with very paltry storage like 32GB and 64GB even in high end Pixels.

I somehow don't see the outrage on HN about things like physical store visits being tracked by default on Android devices.

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You can just turn off location services on android. However, we also began with almost no privacy expectations on phones from the beginning of smartphones.

The difference here is that people using Windows in the past did have an expectation of privacy, which is no longer the case. Also, privacy is being retroactively removed.

At the end of the day, it is their product and they can do whatever they want with it. People are free to migrate away to Linux.

I'm not a big fan of google or Apple and I don't think the fact that other big companies rape your privacy justifies Microsoft raping your privacy.

The NSA is making sure no one gets too outraged. You're allowed to get a little upset about windows, seeing as no matter how mad people get, Windows will still be a huge part of tech infrastructure --it won't go away--, and it also placates the masses, it makes them feel like they're rising up and accomplishing something and that they're "right". In the end the NSA is going to spy on you whether you want it or not. There is no opt-out.

>I'm not a big fan of google or Apple and I don't think the fact that other big companies rape your privacy justifies Microsoft raping your privacy.

I agree with you. I just find it curious why tech forums like this one and others appear to go gung-ho whenever something negative is mentioned about MS/Windows but same or worse privacy violations by other companies in software that is very widely used don't seem to trigger the same reaction.

Forced to use Google's cloud? Chrome OS supports local network drives[1], third party cloud providers (like Dropbox), SD cards, USB drives, etc. Nobody is forcing you to store stuff on Google Drive instead of any of those others options.

Yes, your Chrome OS settings are backed up to Google's cloud, but you can always set an encryption passphrase separate from your Google password so that Google can't decrypt your settings.

[1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/file-system-for-sm...

It's very telling that you get a 3 year free Google Drive storage account with 1TB or so storage instead of more local storage on Chromebooks.

The terms of service allow them to mine all your documents etc. for keywords once it's in their cloud. Otherwise why would they sell Chromebooks at or below cost.

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