Comment by obviouslynotme | Hacker News Reader

Comment by obviouslynotme | Hacker News Reader

I am going to make the real controversial opinion:

Who is surprised here? Google makes money by spying on people. Everything they make is designed to make money. Search history gathers what you are interested in. Android and Chrome vacuum your physical data and more. YouTube both gathers your interests and might become a serious advertising platform someday. Gmail vacuums up what Android messaging misses. Google Ads, Fonts, and Analytics catch anyone who isn't using Chrome with the help of webmasters. Every major Google product is designed around one purpose: knowing everything about you.

I have used Firefox for years and years because this is obvious to me. Google shuts down divisions that make a lot of money all the time. Yet somehow, they are just spending ungodly amounts of money on all this "free stuff." Please. I don't care if you watch a 30 minute YouTube video on how to set all of your Google settings in just the right way for them to graciously not upload live video of your face. Two patches later you have to do it again. This is all while trusting this highly sketchy company to honor its settings. It's like trying to set the perfect contract with a demon or wish for a monkey paw. The real way to win is to not do it.

I don't think many people here are surprised, but putting this information front-and-center for ordinary people is an important step in raising the general awareness of privacy issues in nontechnical communities.

I think that the average person on the street might jokingly say that Google knows everything, but seeing the extent of that data collection right in front of them might have a different emotional impact.

Why does it matter who is surprised?

Because it won't change. Everyone here knows what Google is and I will bet you that over 90% of HN unique users come from a Chrome browser.

It will only get worse. Google always steps on everyone when it dominates a market. Gmail marked your private email server as spam by mistake? Good luck even finding someone to care. Chrome is at this very moment disabling the HTTP2 standard push feature, essentially asserting Chrome as the real standards body.

This is what all of us chose. Without some regulatory body stepping in, privacy will never come back. Even then, that regulatory body will probably be completely staffed by Googlers, since they are experts in Internet privacy.

I disagree. Change is possible, though it may be a while before we see it across all mainstream products. But, the EU and California are making progressing in pushing Big Tech to making changes to their data collection policies, consumers are opting for privacy friendly products (DDG saw the dramatic increase in search of 62% in 2020), and companies are making structural changes in some of their products.

And yes, privacy law is needed to bring privacy back. But, it's also people and privacy friendly products. We have some power. Don't dismiss everyone because one company is too big.

> Google makes money by spying on people.

Wait..was this a secret?

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