this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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Privacy
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You do realize that Google is far worse than Apple and Microsoft combined right?
Not really although its hard to objectively prove anything
I see it as good reason to distance myself from all of these mega data harvesting corporations to the best of my ability. Same goes for meta and tiktok. Why bicker about which is worst when they all are varying degrees of terrible?
Yup. It's a slow process for me, but honestly the fediverse is proving a great resource for that.
You know they can suck up Activity Pub and sell that too, right?
The only difference on the fediverse is that all of them can mine the data, instead of just one of them.
The difference is in what type of data is made available. They can't suck up your IP address through ActivityPub.
Because using none of them is unrealistic.
It takes some effort, but this is untrue. You can easily degoogle many phones with a privacy oriented OS. If you want to avoid Apple, make sure you're not buying an iphone. Install Linux on your computer and use libre open source programs, a privacy oriented email and messaging app. If you need to watch youtube, at least use a proper front end for it. I don't think anyone needs facebook or tiktok, I've been able to just walk away from those without alternatives.
There are manageable approaches to distance yourself almost entirely from these spy companies if you really want to. You can do it slowly, or pick one company at a time to get away from. It doesn't have to be all or nothing, and even small steps in the right direction are beneficial to your privacy.
"ghengis Khan killed more people than Hitler ya know, right?"
As a percentage of population, so did Julius Caesar.
The reality is that Google is entirely dependent on ads and selling your data.
Apple and Microsoft, it's just a happy side gig they can do.
Apple makes its money selling mediocre hardware and software for a premium markup.
Microsoft makes money selling Windows, Office(+Teams) and Azure to business users then from video games, then ad revenue.
Missed the point
Oh I got your point, but I also reject it. Google is objectively making the internet worse.
There isn't any reasonable comparison to Apple or MS outside of they're all too big and too unregulated.
Well, that's wrong. They all collect data and telemetry on you.
Hitler also tortured people
Ok
This is entirely speculation on your part.
Google has been more transparent that it happens. Apple is definitely collecting information on everything you do on their devices as well. It may be just as much info.
With their new pay later feature, you know they are at least collecting enough info to make financial decisions based on your profile.
They also collect health data using the watch.
They collect more than that in order to better understand how to keep people in their ecosystem. I'd wager the latter will about cover what OP was surprised by Google capturing.
Microsoft is another story. They are the most valuable tech company in the world right now due to AI. Which indicates that they are training some powerful AI on data that has been gathered in a number of places.
Doesn't have anything to do with Microsoft and Apple's market share on PC which is what I was thinking of.
Besides, it wasn't like I was saying Google's mobile telemetry is less invasive on Android, where they compete with Apple for being as creepy as possible. IIRC windows phones haven't taken off