[esrauch]

Not trusting Israel has as much to do with hating Jews as not trusting the Vatican has to do with hating Catholics.

Google is significantly less under the thumb of the Israeli government than any Israeli company is. If push came to shove Google could close their Tel Aviv operations rather than comply. They couldn't do the same with the US government and any Israeli company couldn't do the same with the Israeli government.

[vxNsr]

Waze never was anything but an Israeli company, so I don't understand Salim's comment, and I've removed the part about hate, because it was to political.

[salimmadjd]

One, I'm rather indiscriminate about my mistrust of governments. Here's an earlier thread by me regarding my mistrust of Canada, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5849265

Two, when my data is in US, there is still some hope that now or in the future the 4th amendment will provide some privacy. Or some amount of protection. When that data is not here, there is even less protection. Especially countries with strong motivations or history of selling or sharing intelligence. If Waze was in Saudi Arabia, Dubai/UAE, Pakistan, etc. I would have made the same comment, if anything, there is probably more transparency in Israel than the other countries I mentioned.

That being said. I stand by my comment. Israel has done a great job commercializing some of their intel research into a thriving IT sector (i.e. Startup Nation) but that also makes me suspect there is strong ties between their IT sector and their intel community, hence my mistrust.