Don't get me wrong, I think its great what they are doing by integrating search with all the "smartphone features", along with trying to bust up the Mirosoft entrenchment, but it seems like they can potentially have access to too much personal info. I know much, if not all of Google access can be turned off, but if you want to use the phone to its fullest, everything you do can be stored/monitored on a Google server. - If you want to transfer contacts from a non Android phone, list has to go to Google for conversion (Exchange excluded)...they know who you associate with. - Turn on GPS, use for application and search assistance...they know where you are. - Create custom maps and use Nav...they know your habits and where you're going. - Calendar...they know when you're going to go. - Use search/browse history to aid Google in helping you find what you're looking for...they know what you like. - GDocs, stored online...they know what you're working on. - "Backup my settings"...they know how you use your phone, and copies of personal files store on the phone (full flash of phone and SD card, still got wallpaper back...then some?). - You want a decent POP3 mail app, "have" to use Gmail...they have all your personal email. I understand that being able to get free "stuff", there has to be some sort of give/take, but working in IT and being the cynic that I am, I can't help but think that this phone was rolled out more for Google's benefit than ours (read, Data Mining). But I'm more concerned about a security breach given that so much personal info is stored in one spot. /suspicious thoughts
Google will take over the world one day, but first they need to know how to control you... nothing new.
I pondered how much they where gaining as well. I know that they sell our info about our interest and tendencies that they gather from their search engine. So it why wouldn't they sell the info they can gather from our phones.
I haven't and will not use Google Docs, or sync my contacts or calendar with Google. I will wait for a third party app that can do it via pc. I already know plenty about you guys. You get your gas from Saudi Arabia. You get your clothes from China and Thailand. You get your cars from Japan or Mexico. You get your fruit from Peru.
False. We produce a good amount of our own oil and a great majority of our imports come from Canada. S.A. usually comes in as one of our top 5 importers though. Anyways. Don't like the info sharing? Don't use a phone. Privacy is dead in the digital age. Id trust google before lots of other companies.
This seems to come up almost every time there's a new Android device. If you want to have complete control of your privacy, well, you're going to have to find a remote part of the world where no technology can reach you. Right now, everyone who has posted on this website has left a trail that leads back to their doorstep, even if they're on WIFI at some coffee shop. Every time you use a credit/Debit card, someone's compiling that information. They know where you were, and what you bought. Look at your receipt, it has your name, the store address, the date & time, the products, and the cashier on it, doesn't it? From the time you leave for work to the time you head home in the evening you've been caught by at least half a dozen cameras. Security cameras inside and outside buildings, ATM cameras, traffic cameras, random people taking photos and video. Got a cellphone? Then your cell company knows where you are, too. If they didn't know where you were, you wouldn't be able to make calls or receive them. As long as your phone is on, they know where you are. At least approximately. Maybe you don't share info with Google, but what about your friends, family, coworkers, and aquaintances that do? Not all gmail email addresses end in "@gmail.com". If someone hacked my account they'd have names, phone numbers, and in many cases face pictures and addresses, some of them I even have the name and address of their employer as well. They'd see appointments where I met with this or that person, they'd see birthdays and anniversaries on my account, they'd even see text messages as those are backed up to Gmail. If you have a friend like me, your information is already on google's servers. Certainly, people have the right to decide how they want to use their devices and what level of control they wish to have over their information. Honestly, though, unless you plan on moving to a cave somewhere, you don't have nearly the amount of control over your sensitive information that you like to think you do.
Fair enough...however there is no situation where "one single company" has all that info compiled "in one location".
Point taken..I realize we are being monitored to a certain extent, my concerns were both aimed at Google's intent with such focused information gathering, and also a single point of information loss from a security breach from the outside. As far as "Don't use a phone", were you referring to smart phones in general or the DROID itself? I've been using a Moto Q for 2 years and there's no central repository containing all my contact/email/phone's documents...proxy server, for the most part, is bypassed. If you're referring to the DROID, I just took it back...for more reasons than I just posted.
When you put it that way it makes me want to change my name to Ted and go live in a small cabin in the woods. Your're right of course. The minute you are born privacy is no more.
Guys, seriously, Google is probally watching us right now... SHHHHHH!!! be quite before its to .................................................jfaskljdf;laksdf.....
No company lasts forever, and while Google seems invinceable for now, its day will come- it might be 20, 30, or even 50 years from now, but it will happen as it will with Wal-Mart someday too. Become too dominant for too long and companies get arrogant and complacent and before they know it they are the next K-Mart, Sears, or Montgomery Ward- passed by. At some point I think there is a decent chance Google will get forcibly broken up due to anti-trust pressure from the government or courts. Maybe not in the near term, but I could easily see that as a future possibility.
Next Thursday on CNBC I believe, there will be an indepth look into the world of Google by business news anchor guru Maria Bartiromo. Just by the brief commercials for the program one can tell that Google is into everything and if not will be soon enough. TS
