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Comment by andsoitis | Hacker News Reader

> controlling much of our communications

Google doesn't control my communication with others.

Google controls mine as search and gmail and chrome are major ways that I communicate with others. It’s difficult not to use them because my employer and many sites require chrome.

I’m not sure what the gmail market share is, but chrome and search are over 50% and they’ve used that market position to harm users (showing ads for their own products until you choose chrome) and harm competitors (showing their own ads above competitors).

Can you communicate anything you want or does Google control what you're able to say (i.e. "control your communications")

There’s different levels of control. I think control means affect how I communicate.

I can’t communicate anything I want as chrome blocks certain apps from installing. And gmail blocks some communication. And search filters results from what I want to find. Etc etc.

So yes, google controls what I’m able to say.

> I think control means affect how I communicate

Many things affect how I communicate, but that is very different from controlling.

> chrome blocks certain apps from installing

Chrome blocks apps from installing?

> And gmail blocks some communication.

Such as?

Google removed NukeRedditHistory from their App Store. And lots of others.

There’s a system of how gmail decides what is spam and what isn’t. And there’s a large percentage of non-spam that gets blocked or sent to spam [0].

[0] https://www.inboxally.com/blog/why-is-gmail-blocking-my-emai...

If I say something "wrong" on YouTube my entire account can be banned. I will lose all my passwords and identity.

It's hard to say google controls your communication.

You: 1. Voluntary use their services 2. There are lots of alternatives 3. The switching cost is minimal

The parent clearly noted they do not use Google services voluntarily, but are required to by their employer and various websites. Which is exactly the reason for antitrust.

Even if you personally don't use GMail, a considerable amount of personal emails have at least one participant who uses it. Every social person who uses email has some of their communication read by Google. People who like hyperbole will phrase that as all of their communication is data mined and therefore controlled.

moreover - as someone who doesn't use gmail - I'm subject to their capricious and unknowable policies about incoming mail. they get to decide if I can actually speak to half the internet.

Google absolutely controls communication. Two examples,

Example 1: GMail. Google uses the mass adoption of GMail as a cudgel. It's no longer possible to independently host email without being marked as spam or rate limited by Google, https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/gmail-independent-email

Example 2: Google did a good old "Embrace, Extend and Extinguish" on XMPP, https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-netwo...

I have no control on my accointances using gmail, nor than I control the fact that key services only make their website chrome-only and their mobile app available only on the Google play store.

I was in Google Ads 2008-2010 and I do remember: it was 3 top ads and 7 right hand side ads.

It is _impossible_ to use the Internet without your data ending up in some Google service. The same for Amazon, Microsoft. It is still possible to do it while avoiding Apple, Facebook, and others, though.

There are government websites which use Google's Recaptcha. That should say enough.

Don't you have friends and business partners who only use gmail? I envy you…

It’s a game of numbers, and in that game they control the largest slice of the pie

Emphasis on the wrong word. It might not control your communication if you're an iPhone user and you don't have a google account for anything, but it absolutely and objectively _controls_ communication.

For unfathomably large swathes of the planet's population even.

It does this by owning not just the devices they communicate with, but also the operating system on those devices, the applications used through those operating systems, and the infrastructure that those applications make use of. And while it's tempting to say they control the communication, but not the content of the communication, even that's not true: google even controls the content through services like automatic replies for email, call-screening assistant, etc.

And if you ever interact with those, because the other party uses them, then "Google doesn't control my communication" is hilariously misguided. Google controls your communication if that communication is with anyone in the Google ecosystem.

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