Don't be evil

[Daniel]

Not sure if many people know this but that's Google's motto.

But how true is it? Does Google care about you? Does Google wake up in the morning and want to give you a hug? With the way some people seem to view Google one could almost be forgiven for thinking Google is a lovely company :)

But is it? Is it a good company?

A lot of people go on about Microsoft and say that it's evil and that they're only out to make money and to a certain extent that's probably true but then again who isn't? The thing with if you type "failure" into the search box and then click the "I'm feeling lucky" button it comes up with a site about George W Bush and how he's a miserable failure. So basically Google is the window to the world for a lot of people in this planet (in fact I know that a lot of mortgage brokers type everything into the google toolbar rather than into their address bar) so if Google wants you to see something, fear something, love something or loathe something it has the power to do so. In this day and age is that a good thing? While Microsoft can possibly control what your PC is like to use and how many times it crashes during the day, Google is able to control what news story is first (Will it be a far right or left wing publication? Or will it be something fairly balanced like a BBC story?). Get the picture?

Google even sold out on their "Don't be evil" motto by censoring search results for use in China thereby making them money by doing something most in the West would consider wrong.

Then there's privacy :)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/25/third_party_data_storage/

Would you trust your documents to be stored on Google's servers which ends up meaning that you lose all your rights to that data in some cases? :mark: At least Microsoft if honest and pokes you in the eye with a stupidly outrageous cost for it's office package whereas Google pretends to be not evil and leaves your files in internet no mans land and stabs you in the back :)

Perhaps I'm a little paranoid but it's certainly a worry innit? :mark:

[Drew]

I would like to use another search engine than google, the only problem is the competition i've seen hasn't been anywhere near as good as google, anybody have any suggestions?

[janneppi]

Is this about Google or how it's not as good as Microsoft?
Don't be evil doesn't exclude being indifferent. :p :

[tinchote]

Interesting topic. I've always been surprised at how so many people are completely happy with their confidential emails stored by Google who knows where. What guarantee do they have that Google would not use that information? Or that they are not even using it right now?

Just imagine this: how much would the marketing company of a big corporation pay for a massive search on millions of emails for their name and their competition's?

[janneppi]

Then there's privacy :)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/25/third_party_data_storage/

Would you trust your documents to be stored on Google's servers which ends up meaning that you lose all your rights to that data in some cases? :mark: At least Microsoft if honest and pokes you in the eye with a stupidly outrageous cost for it's office package whereas Google pretends to be not evil and leaves your files in internet no mans land and stabs you in the back :)

Perhaps I'm a little paranoid but it's certainly a worry innit? :mark:
How is it really different from the police taking your computer if they have a search warrant?

If Google were to use these records or sell them to third party companies, they would be sued for all they're worth.

[tinchote]

How is it really different from the police taking your computer if they have a search warrant?

If Google were to use these records or sell them to third party companies, they would be sued for all they're worth.

In my view, the difference would be that by using their services, you are forced to trust their security. Even if Google is completely honest and tries for the information to be safe, for such a big company and such amounts of data, security has to be necessarily a headache.

I'll mention a very simple example (in a more näive context) that happened to me many years ago regarding security. I was the system administrator at my department, with a very crude system. One professor couldn't find the file with his cv, and he asked me to try and find it. Because it was a simple system, all I did was run a comprehensive disk search for his last name. Soon the search engine started popping out with results, and many files turned out to be emails mentioning him, and some were not flattering.

Bottom line is, in such a big scheme as they have, you cannot expect security to be perfect. They are serving millions of documents each day.

Besides that, as Daniel mentioned, there is the "small print". There is surely some clause somewhere in their web page that says that they are not responsible or something, or even that they can use your data in certain circumstances of after some time. And as for sueing them, I don't think it's that easy to sue a huge corporation. And even then they can probably settle and still keep making a lot of money.

[Daniel]

Interesting topic. I've always been surprised at how so many people are completely happy with their confidential emails stored by Google who knows where. What guarantee do they have that Google would not use that information? Or that they are not even using it right now?

Just imagine this: how much would the marketing company of a big corporation pay for a massive search on millions of emails for their name and their competition's?
I'm not just talking emails as well :) With google's online office thing you store all of your company documents on their server. So it's not just emails and so on but company documents if you choose to use google instead of Microsoft Office. Perhaps it's just me but the only person I'd trust with that sort of stuff is me.....

[Mark]

I do agree, but for the average user, the documents are probably safer on the google server than they are on their own PC!

[Daniel]

I do agree, but for the average user, the documents are probably safer on the google server than they are on their own PC!
Sadly with a lot of people that's probably true :p

[janneppi]

In my view, the difference would be that by using their services, you are forced to trust their security. Even if Google is completely honest and tries for the information to be safe, for such a big company and such amounts of data, security has to be necessarily a headache.

I'll mention a very simple example (in a more näive context) that happened to me many years ago regarding security. I was the system administrator at my department, with a very crude system. One professor couldn't find the file with his cv, and he asked me to try and find it. Because it was a simple system, all I did was run a comprehensive disk search for his last name. Soon the search engine started popping out with results, and many files turned out to be emails mentioning him, and some were not flattering.

Bottom line is, in such a big scheme as they have, you cannot expect security to be perfect. They are serving millions of documents each day.

Besides that, as Daniel mentioned, there is the "small print". There is surely some clause somewhere in their web page that says that they are not responsible or something, or even that they can use your data in certain circumstances of after some time. And as for sueing them, I don't think it's that easy to sue a huge corporation. And even then they can probably settle and still keep making a lot of money.
Security is always a compromise, even in your home, as was already mentioned, being such a big company, they propably have much more robust security than the average person or a small business can afford.

I wouldn't put sensitive material there, i keep those in my Uni's work servers where they are under the rules i have agreed to follow. :)
I don't use Gmale, or it's ugly friend hotmale either. :p :

[tinchote]

Security is always a compromise, even in your home, as was already mentioned, being such a big company, they propably have much more robust security than the average person or a small business can afford.

I wouldn't put sensitive material there, i keep those in my Uni's work servers where they are under the rules i have agreed to follow. :)
I don't use Gmale, or it's ugly friend hotmale either. :p :

I totally agree, but the average Joe doesn't even know about security. It's like with a bank, for example. You trust them that they know what they are doing, which is not necessarily the case :)


I do agree, but for the average user, the documents are probably safer on the google server than they are on their own PC!

Absolutely. I can be considered a computer geek, and only recently have I started to think about what would happen with the data in my disks in the long term, and I have been switching all my info to encrypted disks.


I'm not just talking emails as well :) With google's online office thing you store all of your company documents on their server. So it's not just emails and so on but company documents if you choose to use google instead of Microsoft Office. Perhaps it's just me but the only person I'd trust with that sort of stuff is me.....

Absolutely :up: