this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
299 points (87.3% liked)

Privacy

31823 readers
467 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
299
Google memes itself with an admission of spying on customers via a new ad on reddit! (i.imgur.com)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
33 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

It's a well-known fact that Google spies on users, which isn't anything new. However, the fact that they are now using this as a reference in a marketing meme is insulting.

Google is now making jokes at customers expense, using memes for promotional ads on Reddit, and saying that they don't care about you because they know people will still buy their ad-platform spyware products.

Well, I say πŸ–•Google! Your corporate capitalism greed gets another πŸ–•! Oh, and before I forget, πŸ–•too reddit.

Edit: removed mention of a certain country

all 38 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 76 points 11 months ago (6 children)

However, the fact that they are now using this as a reference in a marketing meme is insulting.

Google is now making jokes at customers expense,

Google sucks but they're not doing either of those. You're missing the point and using privacy minded thinking to misunderstand.

Are you not familiar with the whole "I spy" thing? Ie: they see something you don't see, they know something you don't know?

I assume you're not in the US and not familiar with that?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Question still stands: who tf greenlit this? No chance they don't know the other connotations

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I highly doubt they're worried about less than the 1% not seeing the obvious meaning of what they said. They're marketing to the masses, which would very much know and pick up on the "I spy" thing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

That just expands the question: do they not know about other countries?

Many of us have certain connotations with google, and while we know the game in our native language, it's not the first thing we think about when thinking "Google says: I spy".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Probably why they published it in English and not your native language so you wouldn't be confused and think they meant it that way. Too bad somebody will always go the extra step to be offended.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sorry, I disagree, I don't make the assumption that they're considering a statistically insignificant group of people that hate them, or possibly countless other countries when using a well know saying in their marketing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Are you assuming that Google, which, as far as I'm aware, is an international company providing service to a multilingual userbase, has less than 1% non-native English speaking users?

I mean, I don't care much how Google advertises itself, even companies I do like sometimes make an unlucky promotion and that's fine, but I do find the arguments in this comment thread to make some wild assumptions.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

What seems like a wild assumption is that an ad in one language would be designed with what another language might think of the ad in mind. Why would a Chinese person care about a Mexican ad for Coca-Cola? You've found something to enjoy being upset at.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago

Are you assuming that Google, which, as far as I'm aware, is an international company providing service to a multilingual userbase, has less than 1% non-native English speaking users?

I'm assuming nothing, nor did I ever say their English speaking data sources are less than 1%. That would be the privacy crowd that would be the ones to take simple marketing using a well known term and go into paranoia about it.

However, if I were to assume anything, it would be that an ad in English, would be geard towards English speakers, not others.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

I thought it sounded really out of place still, but I guess it’s a reference to Cyberpunk’s expansion being stealth/spy based.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I am familiar with that and don't believe your take is accurate. When asking this question, it's followed with a description of the thing you spy.

"I spy... do you?" is the text of the ad and the text following that doesn't make it make any more sense either, "Game more than you thought you could."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I assume you’re not in the US and not familiar with that?

No, other side of the world. No, not familiar with that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

It's a very common game here, especially for children (and has been for decades)... Here's an example https://youtu.be/8N2Ha1FuBr4?si=XN9QeSYPrg1JzBuR

It's very similar to where is Waldo if you've heard of that, except "Waldo" can be anything the person who's running the game wants it to be.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thx for showing me that. I had no idea. Still to me, someone who lives on the other side of the world opposite of America, to see the phrase "I spy... Do you..." From Google felt a lot like, well, my post says it all.

Appreciate you educating me on that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

All good, culture is weird. Definitely a strange reference by Google to begin with

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/8N2Ha1FuBr4?si=XN9QeSYPrg1JzBuR

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Still funny though.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Are they trying to relate themselves to the cyberpunk corps? Who tf greenlit this

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I know right. Like wtf.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

I (charitably) think the fact is that they may also have misunderstood Cyberpunk to be more about hacking than it actually is, and are using "spy" despite a lot of CP2077 not being necessarily about remote hacking cameras at all.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

my bet is one of their bots made this and they don't even know this ad is out in the wild until someone brings it up

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Its either this or its not real. I cant believe a human would green light this unless this is their final task before taking a better job.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

the elites and corps have always done this sort of thing. if you rule over billions of retards wouldn't you also make fun?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Ever heard of the game i spy? and with that they are advertising gaming for a Chromebook. This may all just be a coincidence.

While these tech comapnies have people look at the how users might see phrases like "hey guys." Not sure how Google thought people wouldn't do the same to them with this. Chromebook's don't sell as well so this is the worst product to do the worst with for marketing, but at the same time maybe they really do think this and think they can get away with this meme because no one is really buying a Chromebook unless it's like for school work. (although I actually do use my personal Chromebook on the daily i'm in that small minority.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Cyberpunk 2077's expansion, Phantom Liberty, is a spy story. It's nothing to do with Google.