I sure empathize with your desire to share as little as possible with the tech giants, and the hope that they aren't trading our data among themselves. (Given past slimy collaboration between some of them - e.g. their combination in the interests of keeping tech salaries low - I'm not so sure about them not trading data, doubtless in total disregard of any ostensible privacy policies. Illegality clearly doesn't bother some of them... fines are just business expenses, like taxes - to be avoided as much as possible, but only for financial reasons.)
The thing that makes me furious at google, is that I _am_ a paying customer. I have a Nexus phone. That hasn't stopped them from "fixing" podcasts and instant messaging - the former I now have to pay for from a third party, with a less adequate app; the latter I'm now getting from a fairly wretched google app, after they discontinued what they had put them in originally. And google maps is getting worse and worse ... it constantly changes its mind, contradicting itself immediately after I do what it wanted, probably because it thinks I missed whatever turn they told me to do.
But of course, I'm more valuable as a target for spammage, even though I'm adblocked as much as possible, AND make a practice of remembering successfully intruding advertisers for the purpose of not buying from them. (Google is unlikely to care about stiffing their advertisers by selling them bad prospects any more than they care about making their users hate them.)
That said, I figure Facebook is the worst, followed by Google - they essentially sell nothing *but* their users' time and privacy. Amazon is known to be nasty to its own employees, so even though they tend to do many technical things well, I doubt they have any ethics, just practical considerations. (Think of them as Uber-lite on that score.) Microsoft and Apple sell to their users, which means pissing off users translates into lost profits. So I'm less concerned about them - particularly Apple, due to some of M$' past history.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
I sure empathize with your desire to share as little as possible with the tech giants, and the hope that they aren't trading our data among themselves. (Given past slimy collaboration between some of them - e.g. their combination in the interests of keeping tech salaries low - I'm not so sure about them not trading data, doubtless in total disregard of any ostensible privacy policies. Illegality clearly doesn't bother some of them... fines are just business expenses, like taxes - to be avoided as much as possible, but only for financial reasons.)
The thing that makes me furious at google, is that I _am_ a paying customer. I have a Nexus phone. That hasn't stopped them from "fixing" podcasts and instant messaging - the former I now have to pay for from a third party, with a less adequate app; the latter I'm now getting from a fairly wretched google app, after they discontinued what they had put them in originally. And google maps is getting worse and worse ... it constantly changes its mind, contradicting itself immediately after I do what it wanted, probably because it thinks I missed whatever turn they told me to do.
But of course, I'm more valuable as a target for spammage, even though I'm adblocked as much as possible, AND make a practice of remembering successfully intruding advertisers for the purpose of not buying from them. (Google is unlikely to care about stiffing their advertisers by selling them bad prospects any more than they care about making their users hate them.)
That said, I figure Facebook is the worst, followed by Google - they essentially sell nothing *but* their users' time and privacy. Amazon is known to be nasty to its own employees, so even though they tend to do many technical things well, I doubt they have any ethics, just practical considerations. (Think of them as Uber-lite on that score.) Microsoft and Apple sell to their users, which means pissing off users translates into lost profits. So I'm less concerned about them - particularly Apple, due to some of M$' past history.