[Samuel_Michon]

Google controls much of what web users see. Not only through its general search engine, also through YouTube, Google News, Blogger, and its many other sites. Google decides which results are shown and in which order. They have the power to change public opinion, one person at a time, without anyone noticing it's happening. The more information they know about you, the easier it is for them to manipulate you.

"The problem with social search and personal results is that it biases the results based on the perspective of your friends. If I had a lot of friends who worked for Chrysler and I asked them to name the best car on the road, chances are they’d pick a Chrysler car. But if I asked the general public, I’d probably get a different response. It’s like that old joke Democrats use to tell after the 1972 election, ” I don’t know how Richard Nixon got elected, all my friends voted for George McGovern.” I’m sure many Republicans felt the same way after the 2008 election." [1]

Oh, and "I have nothing to hide" is a well known fallacy. [2]

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2012/01/13/how-and-wh...

[2] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=i+have+nothing+to+hide

[shurcooL]

Fair enough, those are some valid points.

But if Google does try to manipulate people in significant ways without them knowing, eventually it will get out and people's trust in Google will be broken. That's why I don't think they'll risk doing it.

I mean, for instance, if they try to steal your credit card info by reading your emails and steal money from you. If they pull something like that off, it may work in short-term but definitely not in the long-term.

If they do, they can only get away with manipulating people once.

Of course they can manipulate in a smaller scale, in small and harmless ways (by showing you more ads of competitor A vs. competitor B), but I think we all accept that as it is already true today. By helping me find what I'm looking for faster, they're manipulating me into saving time.

So if Google ever betrays my trust on a large scale, I will stop using them.

I tried reading the [2] article and despite its length, I couldn't find very good arguments. I agree it's bad if the government knows more about you without you knowing about them or what they know. But if everyone knows everything, that's something I'm less concerned about.

If you really want to take a naked photo of me, I would ask "why would you want to? Seriously?" Even if you put it online for everyone to see, chances are no one will care. There's 6 billion other people who also have naked bodies.

[Samuel_Michon]

I think we have different world views.

You seem to think that all criminals will be caught eventually, that the truth will prevail (in a timely fashion), that information wants to be free, that people are smart and that they care, and that they will revolt if they see injustice. Perhaps you even think that governments and publicly traded corporations are benign in nature.

I believe none of that (anymore).

I've organized and participated in dozens of protest rallies (for instance: I joined 1 million protesters at a rally in Florence [1]), joined boycotts and picket lines, was a member of a labor union, served in the city council, organized political campaigns, wrote for activist magazines.

I still try to spread the message of equality, solidarity, human rights, and pacifism, education, health, and safe foods. The sad truth is that most people just don't care too much. And it's not just that they don't care about others or society at large, they don't even care too much about their own basic rights.

How else to explain that we still have the same broken financial system that caused our current economic crisis (6 years running!). Why we still have the PATRIOT act, the TSA, Guantanamo, the War on Drugs, various wiretapping laws, etc. Why there's no mass outrage when a corporations lies and cheats, when they leak your personal information, or when it refuses to pay its taxes.

I'm saddened by all of this, and I see it getting worse, not better. People are signing their liberties away, bit by bit.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Social_Forum#First_ESF