Riddle me this: Why Can Google Do What Apple Can't- Remote Desktop

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vision63 wrote:
[quote=Onamuji]
[quote=hal]
...and what harm might come of it? Seriously... I ask this question once a year and no one ever offers an answer... just a lot of !!!s and lines like, 'well, keep using it and you'll find out!'

There's nothing to stop them from sharing that info and there's little preventing a breach allowing hackers to get the info... There's nothing preventing them from collaborating with other data mining companies (or buying their databases) and accumulating a complete profile of every (commercially exploitable and political) aspect of your life. Every person you know, every place you've ever traveled, your mother's maiden name, DMV info, social security... Every organization you've ever belonged to, what charities you've given to, whether you've ever called a politician by a dirty name.

You really can't imagine any misuse of all of that data? On a small scale, there's identity-theft and scaling up from that is industrial espionage via spear-phishing (which took down Target and Sony and ICANN). Political parties may use the info to manipulate you out of your vote. Insurance companies may decide that cough you had when you were 5 years old is an undisclosed pre-existing condition voiding your coverage just when you need $50,000 worth of surgery... Maybe your run for city council will be tainted by that sexy pic your girlfriend sent you 20 years ago in high school... You may be targeted for violence by gangs or profiled by cops or find your old love letters to your wife used in a national ad or your "private" photos used by criminals in an international scam (really happens) ... Tip of the iceberg. Use your imagination.
They're not going to do any of that. And trust me, Apple does the exact same thing as Google, because it's good business.
Apple does not do any of that because it's not in that business. Google is. Trust me.

Worrying about Google because you prefer Apple is worrying about the wrong people

Keep telling yourself that, v63…

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hal wrote:
[quote=Onamuji]
[quote=Article Accelerator]
I think the difference is that Google scans your mail for two purposes, one of which is to determine if it's junk mail; Apple only scans for the latter.

Google scans your email to deliver targeted ads to you and datamine your associations.
...and what harm might come of it? Seriously... I ask this question once a year and no one ever offers an answer... just a lot of !!!s and lines like, 'well, keep using it and you'll find out!'

as far as I'm concerned the only effect is targeted ads that I don't see because of adblock. What else? How will using google harm a person? Has google ever called a girlfriend to tell her that her boyfriend has been cheating on her because he wrote it in an email?
In addition to the excellent points made by Onamuji, you should be aware that if you use Google to do a search, Google will show you what it thinks you're interested in seeing or showing you search results it has been paid to show you. That's what Google's datamining and targeted ads are all about.

If you use Google search, you're living in a filter bubble. Is that acceptable to you?

You put a bandaid on your browser called adblock. Peel it off sometime and see what happens. Go search for, say, "combination wrench" because you wanted to know what such a tool actually was. Your search will result in 300 links to retailers selling combination wrenches. And what's worse, every page you go to for the next 6 months will have ads for combination wrenches. So fun!

And all you really wanted was available directly here…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrench#Types

…instantly. Real information with no search required and no tracking. Imagine that.

[gabester]

I've never successfully gotten BTMM to work on the networks where I actually need it to work; my employer has pretty stringent network restrictions that prevented it from working, and my ISP at home's router didn't help matters.

If I tethered a smartphone or borrowed a neighbor's less restrictive network access I could get it to work under those controlled test conditions.

Google Remote Desktop, on the other hand, works great IF you can get a given machine set up to begin with. I've had any number of random Mac desktops just refuse to enable to remote desktop function.

I've never been a fan of LogMeIn or TeamViewer given that those were their business models.

[vision63]

Article Accelerator wrote:
[quote=vision63]
[quote=Onamuji]
[quote=hal]
...and what harm might come of it? Seriously... I ask this question once a year and no one ever offers an answer... just a lot of !!!s and lines like, 'well, keep using it and you'll find out!'

There's nothing to stop them from sharing that info and there's little preventing a breach allowing hackers to get the info... There's nothing preventing them from collaborating with other data mining companies (or buying their databases) and accumulating a complete profile of every (commercially exploitable and political) aspect of your life. Every person you know, every place you've ever traveled, your mother's maiden name, DMV info, social security... Every organization you've ever belonged to, what charities you've given to, whether you've ever called a politician by a dirty name.

You really can't imagine any misuse of all of that data? On a small scale, there's identity-theft and scaling up from that is industrial espionage via spear-phishing (which took down Target and Sony and ICANN). Political parties may use the info to manipulate you out of your vote. Insurance companies may decide that cough you had when you were 5 years old is an undisclosed pre-existing condition voiding your coverage just when you need $50,000 worth of surgery... Maybe your run for city council will be tainted by that sexy pic your girlfriend sent you 20 years ago in high school... You may be targeted for violence by gangs or profiled by cops or find your old love letters to your wife used in a national ad or your "private" photos used by criminals in an international scam (really happens) ... Tip of the iceberg. Use your imagination.
They're not going to do any of that. And trust me, Apple does the exact same thing as Google, because it's good business.
Apple does not do any of that because it's not in that business. Google is. Trust me.

Worrying about Google because you prefer Apple is worrying about the wrong people

Keep telling yourself that, v63…
You're dreaming. Why do you trust them? Answer the question. No BS

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vision63 wrote: You're dreaming. Why do you trust them? Answer the question. No BS

I think I have answered that question at various times here. Apple is in the business of making hardware, software, and services that surprise and delight its customers. While it may not always hit that mark, that's what it strives to do.

On the other hand, Google is in the business of selling ads. To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of that business, it gathers information—about you. I don't understand why you don't understand this, v63.

[silvarios]

Article Accelerator wrote:
[quote=vision63]You're dreaming. Why do you trust them? Answer the question. No BS

I think I have answered that question at various times here. Apple is in the business of making hardware, software, and services that surprise and delight its customers. While it may not always hit that mark, that's what it strives to do.

On the other hand, Google is in the business of selling ads. To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of that business, it gathers information—about you. I don't understand why you don't understand this, v63.
That's why Spotlight now searches the web by default? That's why Apple owns an ad network that is used to display ads on iOS devices?

[silvarios]

Then I found this lovely example in iTunes, "Recommendations for You: Discover music, movies, and TV shows based on the purchases you make in the iTunes Store. Turn on Genius for even better recommendations." Apple is paying attention to how you use iTunes and compiling statistics on it. Mostly in order to sell you more content, but iTunes Radio most certainly displays ads and Apple knows about all your music via that service.

[vision63]

Article Accelerator wrote:
[quote=vision63]You're dreaming. Why do you trust them? Answer the question. No BS

I think I have answered that question at various times here. Apple is in the business of making hardware, software, and services that surprise and delight its customers. While it may not always hit that mark, that's what it strives to do.

On the other hand, Google is in the business of selling ads. To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of that business, it gathers information—about you. I don't understand why you don't understand this, v63.
I asked "Why do you trust them?" I know what they "do."