Having lectured for Google I would have to beg to differ. They give more out for free than any other major company twice their size and ask nothing in return. If you know how to use the tools they provide free of charge, you have access to everything from free phone service and e-mail to satellite imagery and street view. All of which they do not charge you a dime for and even grant free cloud storage, hangouts for free video conferencing (unlike Microsoft's newly acquired Skype), and the list goes on. They have a neutral carbon footprint, but I'll digress from my rant before I become a Google spokes-model.
If you hate Google you're entitled to your opinion but you'll be hard pressed to find a company that charges advertisers only to give a portion of those proceeds back to the online community, not for the press or publicity but because it's the right thing to do. Most people have no idea what they've given back for free because they don't do it as a publicity stunt so many of their charitable ventures go completely unnoticed.
When was the last time Microsoft or Apple gave you a free anything (other than a headache)???
We even donated all the proceeds from the conference I lectured at to fund local educational programs, all lecturers were from unpaid volunteers such as myself, and we even donated all the food left over from the caterer to a local Women's Shelter so as to waste nothing and give back everything.
Pfffttt... No one makes people use Google, they do it by choice. Bing couldn't even grab but a small fraction of their market share by paying users to use it. I'm not trying to troll you here, I may have a very biased viewpoint having actually worked with Google before on several occasions so I'm sorry if it comes off sounding that way.
People are always entitled to their own opinion and free access to public libraries if they choose to go that route. Such is their right and far be it from me to deny them that... After all, one can always fall back on Yahoo if all else fails and the library is closed.
You fail to see what is going on behind "free" services. No one said that Microsoft is good or that they do not track you. They are even worse with their Windows 10 spyware OS.
Problem is that you haven't done your homework on Google's regular meetings with US regime, censorship, manipulation of search results, population profiling etc.
I guess you haven't even read the article, but you stopped somewhere in the middle and then started to defend Google because you worked for them. That's not good.
If most of the people know the full truth and are given the choice to use something for free in exchange for lack of privacy OR to pay for something that cannot spy on you, what do you think they would choose? Judging by how world behaves today, I am afraid of the answer.
Actually I've done more than my fair share of "homework" so to speak. I'm pretty sure donating free food isn't an ulterior motive meant to support some secret Cabal or Regime it was simply a decision we made to feed hungry people rather than throw it away. Google very much meets with the US government regularly, as does Microsoft and Apple.
All of which have told the US Govt. to stop dictating and leave them alone. Google refused to turn over documents to the NSA even though they maintain their servers. Apple refused to unlock an iPhone for the FBI, and Microsoft? Well, they're Microsoft and they when told by a judge they would be fined in court for stalling the proceedings a whopping 1 million dollars a day, they responded "Respectfully your honor we'll pre-pay for 30 days in advance."
What country do you live in because I'm guessing it's not here in the US. $20 says you're not even running Linux right now while preaching the evils of a company you have never set foot in but run their OS anyway. FYI Steemit is free to use and even pays you too, but I doubt they're also part of some "Great Conspiracy." This Orwellian 1984, Big Brother BS, lets all go be Anarchists and burn all the Evil Corps to the ground BS on here is getting old real fast.
Tell me to go do my homework on a company I have worked with before first hand and on more than one occasion... Please... I did enough homework while getting my college degree.
What's your level of education?
I will make a parallel with your situation and then point out the big difference between us.
I used to work for a bank few years ago. They also donated food and social help during devastating floods. All of us who were employed there also gave our share to help out those people in need. I have donated 10% of my monthly salary to help out, but I didn't want to donate money, because who know where will it end up (think od Haiti and Clinton foundation). Instead I bought physical goods and distributed it.
You know what happened after? I worked in marketing and I heard bosses discussing how to exploit this situation. First thing bank did after that disaster is to offer to all of those people loans. Because of the tragic event that happened, those people couldn't repay that loans. You can guess what happened after.
I quit as soon as I saw what is going in, because I couldn't stand to work for evil. I learned the hard way what big corporations do.
Where is the difference between two of us? I saw what is happening and I took action - I refused to be a part of that evil machine. You on the other hand are still defending the evil machine because you think that charity can mask all the Orwellian stuff in the background.
I am educated, college degree as well. But I am also awake and because of my line of work, I know how to make a difference between lies, propaganda and truth.
Don't try to label me because of my origin, age, education... Try to respond with arguments if you have any, otherwise you are not worthy to be debated with.
You're equating Google, a search engine based company to a bank that practiced predatory lending? I'm pretty sure this would be a tangent because it's far from a parallel.
If distributing an "Evil Corporation's" food to the needy after giving a free lecture to broke college students is being part of the problem, then I will gladly be a problematic individual with every opportunity that arises. No loans were involved and the grant we received to fund the charity event was more than we needed, so we in turn donated the rest to other local charities with Google's blessing.
I fail to see the parallel between charitably donating my time and Google's money in relation to a bank's practice of predatory lending to post disaster victims.
No labels here, just the facts...
I very much read the article, I just disagree with it. To clarify again, I was never a paid worker at Google. I was asked to volunteer as a guest lecturer and received nothing for my time other than the satisfaction of teaching basic skills to a room full of up and coming Android developers.
I defended Google based on merit, not company bias because they paid my bills. They didn't even pay for my hotel or travel time. As I clearly stated I was strictly an "unpaid volunteer" who lectured to a bunch of undergraduate students because everyone deserves free education. There was not a single ulterior motive for my appearance and my agreement to speak at the conference.
I just complimented you when I saw one of your other answers (bank). I couldn't reply to since steemit only permits few levels of replies.
It seems that I was expecting that you will stop acting like a troll, but what can a man do. There is a glimmer of hope when it comes to you, because you like to help other people, but you have a long road ahead of you before you see what's going on.
This conversation is pointless and this is where I leave you to believe what you want.
All best.
I shall do the same as it appears we will have to agree to disagree on this one.
For what it's worth you seem quite intelligent and honestly am I'm sorry if I upset you and derailed your thread.
I wish you the best as well.
Or you could always just edit your comment rather than reply to mine so the thread turns into me replying to myself like this... If someone doesn't know how to turn off location based services, install custom firmware/software, or scrub their devices of malware I would blame the user for failure to do their due diligence. Paid software that doesn't spy on you? I prefer open source so I can see the code before trusting it but then again what would a CompSci major with a list of credentials know about that kind of thing anyway? Oh yeah, there's that homework thing again that springs to mind.
That is commendable, I really mean it.
My argument is that Google, like Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, all have ulterior agenda that is hidden from public. I don't mean regular business secrets, I mean exactly what I wrote above. Since I am in the business of web development and programming, I know how easy is to implement everything I wrote about, but because of my background in marketing and design I also know how it can be easily mixed with propaganda and manipulation.
When it comes to OS I am using, I have 2 installed on my PC. Ubuntu and Windows. Windows is unfortunately required for my line of work, because there aren't good alternatives for Design programs. Who knows, maybe I force myself one of these days to design on Linux and then write about my experience.
Because I am aware that Windows is spyware, I have learned to use Firewalls and some other alternative hacks to prevent communication with Microsoft servers. I am vigilant about my privacy and I know that it is constantly under attack with these "free" services we once thought will liberate us.
If you want to educate people, like I see you do, explore alternatives to mainstream google services. You will see that there are plenty of good choices.
I will leave you with this thought: "If you throw a frog into a boiling water, it will immediately jump out, but if you put it in water and heat it slowly, frog will die because it will end up cooked".