Comment by jasode | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jasode | Hacker News Reader

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>, but Google is invaluable because of its utility and amazing results? It's able to provide those results because it steals your data

What data from me does Google steal? I don't have a Google account. I can be anonymous at a Starbucks coffee shop and search google for "Paul Graham" and get back useful results. If they coalesce search queries on my home ip address, that's unavoidable and a tradeoff I knowingly make.

>And as an alternative to YouTube, there are free public libraries with similar DIY books

In the last month, I needed to replace a side mirror of a Lexus car and also disassemble a Moen faucet. No, my library does not have the manuals to show how to do it. But youtube did have the videos uploaded by nice people. Both of those procedures had tricky steps that weren't obvious and Youtube saved me hundreds of dollars in fees from car dealerships and plumbers.

> I can be anonymous at Starbucks coffee shop and search google

The "Google WiFi"?

> I assume they are developing more unethical uses of personal data

Why not make the same assumption about Google? They could jot down the MAC address of your device, and track you all over the place (not that they need to, since you already use Google maps).

>They could jot down the MAC address of your device, and track you

Yes but a wifi MAC address is not my real name. I'd be more concerned if Google bought a telecom company like AT&T/Verizon and linked phones' IMEI/ESN hardware numbers to search queries. The IMEI is absolutely linked to a real identity because it's the billing address of the person paying for the phone.

The MAC address correlation seems more useful for targeted ads rather than abusing personal real names data like Equifax & Facebook.

not only that you can forge a MAC address in a number of ways, such as configuration, or with a bridge, there are very tiny routers that fit in a cigarette pack or a coffee cup.

Why would they do that, It makes zero sense to assume they would do that and deliberately break their privacy policies.

Oh, but it somehow makes sense to assume the other way for Facebook?

I don't think they knowingly violate their privacy policies either.

Facebook (or really, Zuckerberg) has that track record.

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