[ExI] No to Google

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 17/11/2025 15:44, John K Clark wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 15, 2025 at 3:55 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat 
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>     /> Google is simply too big and powerful,/
>
>
> *The world is big and powerfulso it's inevitable that there are going 
> to be big and powerful things in it. If not corporations then what do 
> you want those big and powerful things to be, lots of high technology 
> corporations or one huge nation state? As for me, I'm an unrepentant 
> capitalist.*

("lots of high technology corporations or one huge nation state?" : 
'Excluded Middle'.)


I'm not saying that Google is just one among many big and powerful 
corporations, and at least huge nation states are plural, not singular. 
If you really don't like the nation-state you are born in, you can at 
least try to move to another one that you like better. There's precious 
little you can do if you want to use your phone as more than just a 
phone, and don't like Google's (or Apple's) policies. Yes, you can 
side-load APKs, and even develop your own software if you have the 
savvy, but guess what? Google were trying to close down that avenue, 
until they were forced to backtrack:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-backpedals-on-new-android-developer-registration-rules/

You pay through the nose for a smartphone, probably pay even more in 
monthly subscriptions, then find that you're not allowed to write your 
own software for it? Or even install software that someone else has 
written that isn't approved of by Google? Don't you think that's totally 
outrageous? Imagine that situation with your PC. Imagine not being able 
to even knock together a little useful script for something, because the 
people who wrote your OS want total control of everything that runs on 
it? (not to mention spying on everything you do with it).

This is the kind of thing that happens when any corporation gets too big 
and powerful. They abuse their power, if they think they can get away 
with it. If any proof is needed that Google are 'too big and powerful', 
their Developer Registration plan is it. This time, they miscalculated, 
and were wrong about getting away with it. What about next time?

This sort of thing happens all the time (I'm not just talking about 
Google now), and needs to be strenuously resisted and routed around.

>
>     /> and seems to be getting moreso all the time. /
>
>
> *Yes, that's because the world is getting larger and more powerful, 
> and that growth rate is about to go into hyperdrive.*

That seems to be the best hope, that nobody, including Google as well as 
the governments of authoritarian states, will be able to keep up, and 
will become irelevant.

>
>     > /I'm fairly sure that I'm the only person I know in real life that
>     doesn't have one/[a Google account] 
>
>
> *I wouldn't be surprised.*
>
>     /> Contrast this with the browsers that we use, or the operating
>     system/s we favour. /
>
>
> *I assume you have a phone, if so its operating systemalmost certainly 
> came from Apple or Google, and your web browser probably came from 
> Apple, Google or Microsoft, mine sure does and I thank them for it.*

My phone use is minimal (one of those rare people who use their phone 
just as a phone, not a general computing device), and I don't and 
wouldn't use a browser from any of those companies.

>
>     /> When I said "I'd hate to lose this list", I wasn't referring to
>     Google shutting the list down, I was referring to the fact that if
>     it moved to Google, I wouldn't be able to take part in it any
>     more. The same reason I sometimes read, but never post to, the
>     Extropolis list.
>     /
>
>
> *I'm sincerelysorry to hear that, I'd reallylike to get your input.But 
> what negative consequences do you envision happening if you were to 
> make such a post? *

As far as I can see, I can't post to the Extropolis list without a 
Google account. This may be wrong, as per John Klos' comment, but even 
so, I wouldn't make much use of it if I could post. I try to avoid even 
replying to gmail addresses, because I reckon Google has way too much 
information already, and I know that they harvest information from every 
source they possibly can, including gmail messages, as well as people's 
wifi signals, from the Google Street View cars (at least until the 
German data protection people raised a stink about it and they had to 
stop). Whan a company behaves like that, is it any surprise that I don't 
trust them?

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/google-admits-collecting-wi-fi-data-through-street-view-cars/

I find it a bit odd that they say it was accidental, and the data was 
never used, then add that "other companies, including Skyhook and 
Microsoft, already scan wifi networks and gather information in this 
way" (with the implicit "so why shouldn't we?").

The negative consequences of dealing with Google in general, even in a 
peripheral way, are that they harvest even more data about me, which, as 
a privacy-valuing person, I greatly object to. Yes, I have a lot to 
hide, and No, I haven't done anything wrong.

-- 
Ben

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