I'd really hate to be in Google's position. Really hate. They make a ton of services that are near universal, not due to lockin, not due to any other anticompetitive shenanigans, but because they're good and people want to use them.
And meanwhile with every product launch, 90% of the internet using public is rightly excited, 9 % are meh, and the remaining one percent are "zOMG GOOGLE IS EVIL! HOW DARE THEY MAKE A SERVICE THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO WILLINGLY USE! AND CAN EASILY MOVE DATA IN AND OUT OF!"
Some of you have a shockingly broad and absurd definition of "evil".
If there's something I absolutely don't want to be read, I'll upload a truecrypt volume. Problem solved, sans chicken-little-esque complaints.
I don't agree with the mentality that you're commenting on, but I can somewhat see where they're coming from. One way to think of it is to see all services as a mousetrap where the powers that be can snap the trap if they like, and fuck over a lot of mice (by betraying privacy).
Google may make really great services, but to people who view these highly-integrated services as potential mousetraps, it's just an irresistibly-gilded moustrap. It may be amazing, but it just means it's luring more people in to be snapped in the trap.
And I imagine you can become one of those people by being burned on privacy concerns, or by being pre-emptively vigilant regarding your privacy. There's been all kinds of news of services that have betrayed privacy in one way or another, so it's not totally far-fetched.
You just described every business. People don't have perfect knowledge.
Thank you for trying to raise awareness over an admittedly important issue.
But calling this "evil" is absurd.
Go yell at people convincing college kids to sign up for credit cards or buy magazines by handing out T-shirts and movie passes.
For comparison: The phone companies know about every phone call you make. That's a wealth of information. They're exploiting people's ignorance to get it...
The credit card companies know about every purchase you make. Why would a company ever let another company know everything about all of their purchases?
ADP knows how much you pay all of your employees!!!
When your hard drive "fails," the guy from HP and Dell could be copying all of your data, not just "servicing" your computer!!!
Look no further than your government. Frankly, you may be better served encouraging the use of encryption, because, sadly, I could probably convince myself that Google can be trusted to lobby for my rights/privacy more/better than my governments prying eye would lobby to take them away.
However, awareness of encrypting important data and not using online-social tools is the alternative.
>it's with them exploiting people's ignorance to get it.
How are they exploiting any kind of ignorance? What is the average GDrive user unaware of that Google is somehow evil for not disclosing in large, red, 52pt Impact?
And I quoted you saying "evil" because it's the relevant portion that I was responding to. You could have gone with "Hmm, cloud storage has a few drawbacks..." but no, you went full derp.
The same way a plumber is "exploiting" your ignorance. You don't know how to or have the tools to replace your kitchen sink p-trap... that is you are ignorant in this case. In step s the business with the tools and knowledge- or technology if you will...
You can't build your own gdrive or have the tools too (or the curve to do so is too steep). In steps google.
I disagree with the word "exploit" in this case. Maybe "capitalizing" on your ignorance. That's what a successful business does- capitalizes on prevalent ignorance- of process, or tools, or what-have-you- and makes a business model out of it.
I'd really hate to be in Google's position. Really hate. They make a ton of services that are near universal, not due to lockin, not due to any other anticompetitive shenanigans, but because they're good and people want to use them.
And meanwhile with every product launch, 90% of the internet using public is rightly excited, 9 % are meh, and the remaining one percent are "zOMG GOOGLE IS EVIL! HOW DARE THEY MAKE A SERVICE THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO WILLINGLY USE! AND CAN EASILY MOVE DATA IN AND OUT OF!"
Some of you have a shockingly broad and absurd definition of "evil".
If there's something I absolutely don't want to be read, I'll upload a truecrypt volume. Problem solved, sans chicken-little-esque complaints.