Hacker News Reader

Comment by kawfey | Hacker News Reader

Despite the tirade of anti-facebook/google/amazon blogs and posts in the last 5 years, I'm still not convinced that "being tracked" in my day-to-day life is a negative thing. I still don't perceive that my privacy is lost when I use those services. That information is shared with companies who use the data more-or-less responsibly with respect to my life.

Personally I prefer having a majority of my internet experience centralized in one place. Calendar, Email, files, maps, news, search, entertainment, etc. This saves a lot of time and effort in my life. Is it worth it?

View on HN

My only fear with having everything centralized is that Google can decide you did something wrong and cut you out of so many important things in your life, without recourse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15989146 is just one example I found with minimal searching.

You might also enjoy Cory Doctorow's "Scroogled": https://craphound.com/scroogled.html

Though for whatever reason the formatting on that appears terrible (to me in my uMatrix locked down Firefox)

I had a nice umatrix config saved to the cloud but it got deleted somewhere in the last one year (I had to temporarily switch to chrome). Did that happen to you too?

Until they don't.

Just because you don't balk at the current usage (that you know of), doesn't mean they aren't, or won't, do something you won't balk at. Anything learned can't be unlearned, and so by definition you've allowed them collect any data they are able to, and to do anything they wish with the data they collect.

So far they haven't really done much wrong. But, the problem is, the potential for wrong doing is so enormous. Google has so much power to control the fate of every business on this planet: I think this is just begging for abuse. It's remarkable that they've gone this long without any more serious scandals.

Well I'm not sure this mentality won't have consequences, I find myself doing what you do. Not precisely because of trust or because I think they're well behaved but simply because I don't care about the tracking and, while I'm not certain, I do hope nothing bad comes of it.

In fact, I actually bought the pixel 3 just two weeks ago. It's nice.

They use it responsibly now, but that assumes they’ll always use it responsibly. And what happens in the worst case scenario, when some actor takes over who may not care for laws and constitutions?

Hence the GDPR: it's perfectly fine to track your every move as long as they get explicit, opt-in consent for doing so.

> Despite the tirade of anti-facebook/google/amazon blogs and posts in the last 5 years, I'm still not convinced that "being tracked" in my day-to-day life is a negative thing

I made a similar observation before, and despite reasonable points raised I was downvoted to oblivion both here and at lobste.rs.

It is one of those things you can't say[1] here.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html

I was tracked by an abusive ex for months via my Google account. Location history allowed them to show up at places they knew I would be at, and they had access to my email and who knows what else before I figured out what they were doing.

If you're a dissident, a journalist[1] or a political party member[2], there are powerful people who might want to track or silence you. If you're the wrong type of minority in the wrong place at the wrong time, there are people who might want to put you in camps[3] or murder you[4].

A KGB-style surveillance apparatus that's used to better target ads can be abused by anyone with an agenda, no matter how petty their motivation is.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/01...

[2] https://qz.com/1089384/the-communist-app-store-chinas-endles...

[3] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/muslims-...

[4] http://time.com/chechnya-movsar/

How is it Google's fault that someone else had access to your account and (for all intents and purposes) impersonated you? If someone gets access to any of your important accounts on your behalf (which would include your primary email), you will have a lot of opportunities to get screwed over. Email access alone can be enough, in a lot of cases.

> How is it Google's fault that someone else had access to your account

Please don't strawman my anecdote. I never said it was Google's fault.

However, I did say that Google's surveillance system enabled a level of stalking that's never been this accessible to laymen and nation-states alike.

> I did say that Google's surveillance system enabled a level of stalking

*Google's surveillance system in conjunction with irresponsibly giving one's account login to one's ex

Fixed that for you.

* Had a device stolen and password stolen either through spying or a key logger.

Fixed that for you.

In which case, just what is the relevance of your report to kawfey's comment?

What was the point of sarcastically dismissing me by making up something that I never said?

To answer your question, scroll up two posts, because I already answered it:

> However, I did say that Google's surveillance system enabled a level of stalking that's never been this accessible to laymen and nation-states alike.

I did notice what you wrote but you still do not see how you shift blame on to Google (despite careful use of the word "enabled") all the while conveniently ignoring key facts (device stolen, password stolen, etc.) that indicate personal responsibility.

If someone stole the key to my house, and went on to steal important things, is it the fault of the company that makes the locks? Did the lock company "enable" the stealing to happen?

But then blaming someone/ something else for what one is personally responsible for is as old as humanity.

Weird that you continue to straw man my comment after I called you out on making up outright lies. First I'm met with sarcasm and assumptions, next I'm met with condescension and an attempt to straw man my anecdote as a thinly veiled crucifixion of Google.

Here is the comment I addressed with my anecdote:

> I'm still not convinced that "being tracked" in my day-to-day life is a negative thing. I still don't perceive that my privacy is lost when I use those services.

Perhaps context is necessary, or perhaps you should consider why you're so driven to make assumptions about my posts.

> If someone stole the key to my house, and went on to steal important things, is it the fault of the company that makes the locks? Did the lock company "enable" the stealing to happen?

This is a poor analogy. Before locks, people could still break into your house.

Before Google et al., you needed expend significant resources to track a person 24/7 to the nearest 3 meters. As I said in my previous post, fine-grained tracking is more accessible to the general public now than it's ever been before.

This was my point.

The fact remains that your anecdote bears no relation whatsoever--as in it neither supports nor refutes--kawfey's comment (which you quoted here). Therefore, if it is not "a thinly veiled crucifixion of Google" (as myself and the sibling commenter gathered from your comment) then what is it?

> The fact remains that your anecdote bears no relation whatsoever--as in it neither supports nor refutes--kawfey's comment

Here's the poster's comment:

> I'm still not convinced that "being tracked" in my day-to-day life is a negative thing.

I provided an anecdote where "being track" in my day-to-day life was a negative thing. I don't believe it's that hard to follow.

> I provided an anecdote where "being track[ed]" in my day-to-day life was a negative thing.

No, you provided an anecdote where having your "password stolen" (by an abusive ex) was a negative thing.

If someone stole the key to your house, and went on to steal important things, is it the fault of the company that makes the locks? Does that make the act of locking, day after day, a negative thing?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com