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Re: Google is evil, very evil

  • Subject: Re: Google is evil, very evil
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 10:40:30 +0100
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: schestowitz.com / ISBE, Manchester University / ITS / Netscape / MCC
  • References: <1157354962.367542.69050@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com> <1157361842.226313.120440@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>
  • Reply-to: newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • User-agent: KNode/0.7.2
__/ [ Rex Ballard ] on Monday 04 September 2006 10:24 \__

> casioculture@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> Microsoft has never bothered me as much as Google does.
>>
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/03/google_eavesdropping_software/
>> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060609-7028.html
> 
> OK.  That one really does make me nervous.  Turn on the microsoft so
                                                          ^^^^^^^^^

*grin*


> that we can just "listen to what's going on" and use "fingerprinting"
> to identify "target noises".  This sounds so much like "big Brother"
> it's really spooky.
> 
> I'm a big fan of google, and I think it's really great that they are
> willing to index my web site and anything else I want indexed for the
> public.


My sentiments exactly.


> I like google desktop, and I like that they can index anything on my
> desktop - for me.


Assuming you use Windows, which suddenly *gasp* Google cares about. Why?
Because of its "market share" (not installed base:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Installed_base ).


> But what if google decides that this Microphone should start doing
> text-to-speech, recording everything I say, on the phone, to my wife,
> or to a coworker, or to a client, and starts publishing it in real-time
> even before I know what I want published an what I don't.


I thought the same thing this morning. You meant to say speech-to-text but
got this reversed because, quite clearly, you wrote the message as response
to impulse. Google's obsession with collecting data is nothing new. The
cookie is set never to expire (virtually so, as the maximal date is set) and
all the search logs are retained, with nice interfaces for quick access.
Google also has some spooks in-house (e.g. Matt Cutts, who happened to send
me E-mails this morning) and I would never trust Schmidt with his scary ego.
See the following alarming item:

http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot?m=1080


> That seems like something Microsoft would do, not google.


Gates argues that Google wants to manage the world's information (mission
statement) while Microsoft wants to provide (the _one and only_ $et of)
tools for organising one's information. Both intentions deem evil. And
Microsoft is becoming Google as it embraces Google's tactics in the catchup
chase (e.g. IE7 as spyware).


> I hope they've slapped this research guy silly for suggesting this
> brilliant idea.
> On the other hand, if they have a patent, they can at least prevent
> anyone else from doing it for the next 20 years.


Adobe Flash brings up special notifications before it permits input from the
microphone to be used in any way. I guess Google can circumvent the Web's
safety restrictions by using desktop applications. Google Chat sounds
(pardon the pun) like a splendid candidate.

Best wishes,

Roy

-- 
Roy S. Schestowitz      |    The most satisfying eXPerience is UNIX
http://Schestowitz.com  |     GNU/Linux     ¦     PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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      http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms

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