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by Superblazer 1799 days ago
It is okay if it were only for ads personalisation, but everyone knows that isn't the case. They have too much data just for personalising ads, Google knows way too much.
1 comments

So to me, that's the preview of an argument, but not a complete argument. What is the actual bad thing or bad state that will be caused by Google knowing this information about individuals, or in aggregate?

I think that when we weigh the harm against the good, we're likely to disagree about the balance. But I think I have more information about the good than people who have not worked at Google or Facebook, and I have just as much information about the potential and actual harm.

Could you share the potential and actual harm?
For one thing, all Googles data is presumably stolen one way or another by the NSA, which use it for things like industrial espionage, supporting regimes like Saudi Arabia, probably a modern version of COINTELPRO and god knows what else.
I am not sure I'd subscribe to that theory. I am no friend to google but they have some very sharp people working in security to the extent I wouldn't be suprised if NSA tried to poach them.

NSA getting caught pwning google would be a snowden-esque nightmare for them. Now some backroom deal between NSA and google for SOME data would be more believable, it never hurts to align incentives and have a three letter agency owe you a favor when senator so-and-so starts banging the break up & regulate big tech drum.

I assume NSA delivered a NSL to them the day after Snowdon if not before. And they weren't hurt at all by the the leaks.