If my statement is false, say it.
Are you actually comparing Google to Meta?
Birds of a feather
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Speaking from a privacy POV/mindset, all of big tech may as well be the same company. They are all doing same or similar things for themselves in the name continuing to keep providing āvalueā to their ācustomersā.
From a practical and pragmatic POV, there should be no differentiation. If one still feels that a differentiation is warranted, I can only think itās because of ones lack of understanding of the industry and surveillance (late stage) capitalism at large.
So at this point apple is as bad as meta or Microsoft?
I fail to see your point. I think we all wish we could escape big tech services if we could but the reality is we canāt make ours own phones it doesnāt really matter if it is Google, Apple, Samsung, LG or Sony. We just have to choose the best OEM for ours goal, it just happened to be a Pixel I donāt think anyone is happy about it.
The different here is Google VPN is a chose if you trust Google then fine use it. We canāt really say if it is good or bad from a privacy point of view yet.
From at least an enshittification POV, they are getting there fast. Some may argue Apple is fully there.
From a privacy POV, they are not doing enough anymore for their users nor providing then with built in easy to use and toggle tools.
Had they released their own easy to use VPN with oroer privacy protections for the device and all apps, had they made it possible to block each apps connection to the internet in full whether on WiFi or cellular, had they jumped on board with realizing the benefits of RCS much sooner, had they included Mail and others in their ADP by now, had they actually made a proper password manager with integration of aliasing the already provide with apps for other operating systems - I would still be on Appleās side. But Iām tired of giving them the benefit of the doubt they used to deserve.
@SmartCondor says in hist post that he canāt understand people that question if google products have some privacy. This means that he assume that every product is already privacy invasive from Google. If you think this further this would also mean that the pixel hardware itself is privacy invasive (some really low level code).
If you assume Google has actual privacy invasions in such low-level code than it would mean you canāt buy a pixel if honor privacy and might use an alternative like apple (if you donāt think the same way about apple)
Youāre clearly and knowingly misrepresenting facts. I also clarified software products from Google. Apps and such. This is not a discussion of hardware. I donāt understand why you donāt understand this.
So you differentiate between apple and meta.
But why is this in google and meta not the same case?
I see the difference between apple and google, google and meta, meta and apple.
I donāt understand why you donāt understand this.
Because you differentiate between hard and software. Which doesnāt make sense.
If Google is soo evil, then why are you not assuming this on the hardware site too? I donāt see any rational logic why you see hardware and software from the same vendor complete different in the aspect of privacy and security.
You ostensibly appear to be unable to fathom what and how I mean from all that I am saying in this thread.
And I am at the end my capacity to yield the English language such that you can understand. I donāt believe itās possible because there is clearly a more fundamental cultural difference or a difference in reading and comprehending English itself.
Perhaps someone else can do it better but there are only so many permutations and combinations of words that can be used for the same. I donāt know which will work however.
By default and with the very close hardware and software integration that comes with a Pixel, they are all bad.
But you keep changing the goalpost to GOS from Google VPN and now you hardware with stock Android when the discussion was about GOS which in turn wasnāt even the original point of this thread in the first place.
I genuinely thought better of you as a lurker for so long, though I am glad for the revelation.
But you keep changing the goalpost to GOS from Google VPN
No, I just stated to say a company is bad and should not be questioning if a product (google VPN) from them is good, while also recommending a different product from the company (pixel) is contradictory.
Iām not changing the topic, Iām comparing the topic.
you hardware with stock Android when the discussion was about GOS
Where did I ever talk about stock android?
This is just a conversation about threat models, right? VPNs are a tool with different use cases
To mitigate surveillance capitalism, I would not consider this trustworthy. Even with encryption like SSL, Google will see the sites/servers accessed by your account & surely find a way to profit off that data
To hide activity from an adversarial government, probably not. Google has a tendency to openly comply with government requests. Maybe thereās a case to make that certain governments with adversarial relationships to the US may be safeā¦ But given how hungry Google is for global marketshare, I wouldnāt personally rely on any protection here
To hide internet activity exclusively from your local network and its administrators - probably fine, right? If your local network blocks some mundane service like YouTube, and you just want to access it on WiFi, this is a free VPN tool that will hide your activity. There is a strong case to make that free VPNs from providers like Mulvad or Proton are preferable on ideological grounds, but from a functional standpoint, I think VPN by Google would be fine for this specific, singular threat model
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I see no difference.
Did google every bypass security mechanisms in place to spy on their users?
Well given google controls Chrome and Android that is a bit of a hard comparison. But afaik no. However Google has definitely favoured spying on their users over security measures in several occasions. Like for example with not blocking third party scripts and cookies and other insecure browsing practises or granting themselves deeplevel control in standard android phones.