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Comment by lvs | Hacker News Reader

From the outside, it seems to have reached a tipping point in the past year that is now getting quite dramatic. A whole string of heavy-handed, anti-user, and privacy-hostile decisions. What just happened to the culture that would allow all this evil behavior? Or did we misunderstand it all along?

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> Or did we misunderstand it all along?

I think yes. Google has been considered "evil" by the tinfoil hat crowd for quite some time, and once again it has become apparent to the mainstream that they were right.

Google died when Smith said you have no privacy now[0]. Well I have no Google now. Fallback almost never used.

[0] can't find actual quote, did I dream?

Quoth: “We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about”

The quote I know along those lines is from Scott McNealy.

I think you were dreaming of this, perhaps?

https://www.eff.org/nl/deeplinks/2009/12/google-ceo-eric-sch...

I'm surprised that people keep being surprised about Google being just another company. Money first, money last.

You didn't dream: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/04/google_ericisms/

>Google has been considered "evil" by the tinfoil hat crowd for quite some time, and once again it has become apparent to the mainstream that they were right

it's almost as though the people with money benefit from marginalizing the people cynical enough to understand what they are doing.

You know, I used to think times like this when us conspiracy theorists could say "I told you so" would make people rethink some things, but that has proven to be false. I was ranting about NSA and other unconstitutional abuses before Snowden and was getting called "crazy", and then after Snowden the majority of comments around here became variations of "Well, are you surprised." and "If you have nothing to hide" and "Broken clocks are right twice a day"...

Google, like facebook, was from origins designed to end up this way. It was not some organic complication of motives due to massive growth.

Relevant reading: https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-cia-made-goo...

Or did we misunderstand it all along?

I’m really curious, what did you think their business model was going to be given they have free services?

Surely the path they are on is the obvious one?

From a mobile perspective, I used to be heavily invested in the Android ecosystem. Now I use an iPhone and and willingly hand over my Apple tax every few years and will continue to do so whilst I can afford it.

Google's direction is a pity really, as Apple needs a strong competitor in the mobile market to maintain innovation momentum.

Sundar Pichai is now CEO. What else do you expect?

I guess that may be right. This is what you get when you put an MBA in charge of anything you care about.

I feel like this is bigger than just Google. It seems like all of Alphabet is tending in that direction.

Isn't Alphabet the clear "parent" of Google... I'm biased, but we are witnessing the beginning of a monopoly that wasn't imaginable pre-internet. Old rich white men are trembling in their shoes... The take-over game but played better, sexier, and immune. My G-ma loves the Google, so easy even the 90 year olds get it

I believe we are witnessing the result of a company offering not just a series of products but a whole lifestyle, and it is too hard for consumers to live without it. Best game plan you could ever imagine... Internet becomes connectivity, offer free search among connectivity, build products that promote connectivity, step 4: profit.

The bean counters have been taking over slowly at first, but now it's pretty fast.

Maybe it's human nature to only be able to focus on one moral conflict at a time.

Now that Google's culture is focused on collective racial/gender justice, there's no oxygen left to put towards individual rights like privacy.

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