The problem with what you wrote -- " I share your dislike of large corporate monoliths, but then again, they give us lots of free stuff. Can't beat the search engines, directions at the touch of a finger, yada yada.".. is that it's indicative of an unawareness of how business works online.
Some businesses work the old-fashioned way. They sell stuff...physical stuff like rope or boats or houses or ponies or autopilots or candy, online. Amazon functions as a sales outlet but also as a middleman, but in the end, MOST...not all, but most of what Amazon sells is "stuff".
Google doesn't do that, and neither does Facebook. What they sell is time and contact. They sell exposure to you. Every second they can document where they have your attention is money to them because they can say...
"Look, Jackie Philpott spent 45 minutes staring at our website. Hey Big-Company-That-Sells-Stuff we will sell you space on our search engine/store/chat site/whatever that has captured Jackie Philpotts attention. She will be looking at your advertising for a long, long time."
Not only that, but they're better than that, Jackie. These companies track what you search. Do you think Google gives away that search engine for free? Google is a company and there is no private, for profit company that gives away anything significant "for free". Google tracks what searches are run from your computer. They know that whoever sits at the computer with hardware address xx:12:yy:45:zz:67 does a lot of online searches for boat stuff. That means that they will market advertising access to your computer to West Marine. If you never search for MMA fights, then won't try to hit you with advertising for TapOut clothing. If you're not interested in what Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are up to this week then you won't see advertising for Justins favorite baseball cap company.
Google and Facebook specialize in targeted advertising and the more information they can gather about you, the more precise, and therefore the more valuable, their advertising is.
Two stories....
1. ) Me. Once, my friend Lance and I were joking around about his little girls' fascination with "My Little Pony". Do you know what "My Little Pony" is? I didn't know, either. So after laughing about it, the next day I looked up the slang term "Brony" with Google. "Brony" is a slang term for guys who like "My Little Pony" which is seriously marketed at little girls. An hour later, I started seeing "My Little Pony" advertising popping up on my Facebook page. To me that's a little bit creepy, not because of the Brony thing, but because the connection between a google search and Facebook advertising was SO tight.
But still hahaha! My Little Pony! ~~funny. The next story isn't so funny.
2.) My friend Carlene was diagnosed with a late-onset neurologic disorder about 2 years ago. When her doctor told her about it, she didn't know what it was. He (or she) prescribed something to Carlene to help with some of the symptoms. Carlene used Google to search for information about that medication. Within a few hours, she started noticing that the advertising on some of the websites she was visiting was all about her disorder, treatment for it and so on.
In other words, by doing a web search, Google and it's affiliates "knew" that she had this neurological disorder and Google
had sold that information to it's advertisers. They might not have sold the direct knowledge that someone by the name of Carlene X had Disease Y, but they sold the fact that the computer at 33:rr:56:df:ab:24 had a user who did a search for Drug A, and that person also has a Gmail account
[email protected] and the person logged in to gmail under that account spent nine hours this week looking at websites that google controls.
Hahaha! My Little Pony. So funny. --------------- Sharing health information for profit? Not so funny. What prevents Google from sharing that information with Carlene's health insurance company? Oh, they only sell the information that the user at hardware address xx:12:yy:45:zz:67 did a search for the drug Oxyfibbulin A. That's all. Funny though...the online application for insurance from Mutual_Health_Insurance.com came from a computer with hardware address xx:12:yy:45:zz:67 . No personal information was sold here, right? Right? ...so it's not illegal.
Right?
I'm not making any of this up, Jackie, this is
EXACTLY how both Google and Facebook work. Those search engines are not "free". Is Google Maps, "free"?
Jackie, every time you use Google Maps on your phone, with your GPS turned on, you are sending exact information about where you are and what you are doing, to both Apple and Google. If you have location services turned on, on your iphone so that in theory you can find your iphone when you lose it, Apple knows where your phone is. If they can seduce you into carrying the thing on your person so closely that with a high degree of certainty they can say
"where Jackie's phone is, there also is Jackie" then they know that you drive by a Starbucks every day on the way to work. You will see Starbucks advertising,
if Starbucks is willing to pay for it. The more accurate Google/Apple/Facebooks information on you is, the more valuable their advertising is to Starbucks.
Jackie, Apple knows where you sleep. I mean, think about it. Is your iphone moving between midnight and 3:00 AM? Probably not, huh? Did you ever have a small child? You know, kids today are married to their phones. They text every minute they're awake. Do you really think that Google and Apple don't have databases of those texts and where those phones ergo..kids... are when they text? Are you comfortable with the fact that Google knows exactly where your kid is, 24/7, even if you don't? I'm not making this up, this is today...right now... reality.
Don't even get me started on FitBits and apple watches. Seriously, people VOLUNTARILY send private companies with absolutely no interest whatsoever in their health, intimate information on their exercise habits, blood pressure, heart rate, weight, where they are, etc. etc. And Amazons Alexa? What the actual f**k? People, by the millions, put a private companies listening device in their homes so it would easier to go shopping. Google Home? Seriously? What the 'efff?
I remember explaining that to our dept secretary. Her response was..."
but I only use it to turn on my music!". Dumbass, it's not what YOU use it for that matters. It's what AMAZON USES IT FOR that matters. If the damned device isn't listening all the time, how the 'eff does it know that you just said "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" ?? Do you really think that Amazon is so concerned with your privacy that they aren't filtering every word said in the proximity of that machine for hints for advertising? Think for a moment. AMAZON KNOWS WHEN YOU'RE HAVING SEX IN YOUR BEDROOM. How? Because that damned Alexa machine can hear you.
What's next? Microchip implants under your skin? Oh, but it makes online shopping so much easier!!!
Google? No. Google has NO social conscience. They are a private company and the company has one goal and one goal only. Make Money.
I choose not to give them, mine.
