[spokengent]

> And my socks or bowl doesn't have the ability to record my personal calls or track my location.

How do you know? You're just more trusting of stuff that doesn't look like it has extra functionality. For all you know, bowl manufacturers could embed GPS tracking devices in there.

There comes a point where you just have to trust people selling you stuff won't be evil.

[icebraining]

For all you know, bowl manufacturers could embed GPS tracking devices in there.

I don't carry my bowls around ;)

There comes a point where you just have to trust people selling you stuff won't be evil.

I don't like that word. It oversimplifies the issues. Whether Google is evil is subjective and irrelevant. The fact is that their entire business revolves around collecting personal data, often without being clear to the user about the details.

Is this for evil purposes? Were they discussing in dark rooms on how to fuck the user over? No, of course not. But does it really matter?

[spokengent]

> "The fact is that their entire business revolves around collecting personal data, often without being clear to the user about the details."

BS. They sell advertising.

[icebraining]

They sell targeted advertising. And to target effectively, you need personal data. I never said they sold that data, just that they need to collect it.

[spokengent]

They don't need to.

You search for X, they show adverts related to X.

The extra targeting stuff probably increases their revenue a few %.

[icebraining]

That produces inferior results. But whether they need or not is irrelevant. They do.