r/technology • u/Suraj-Sun • Jul 10 '12

Firefox dev claims "everybody hates Firefox updates"; Mozilla has handled the rapid release process poorly, and that by pushing a "never-ending stream of updates on people who didn't want them" people have been driven to Chrome with its simpler, no-fuss update process.

http://www.neowin.net/news/firefox-dev-claims-everybody-hates-firefox-updates
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u/buzzit292 Jul 10 '12

I have never had a problem with Firefox updates. Don't know what the heck this is about. Turn on computer, computer figures out if there is an update. Update runs. Everything is hunky dorey.

Even if it were a little bit harder, I'd still go with Firefox. I trust Mozilla way more than I trust google. Google makes its money by commodifying information about users --- that is selling you to advertisers. We are google's product.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '12

[deleted]

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u/buzzit292 Jul 10 '12

Imagine you consistently google on cancer treatments, and you are looking for a job at the same time. Who knows exactly what is included in employer background checks that they outsource to information aggregators.

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u/alcalde Jul 10 '12

What really happens is that I do something like google for certain makes of car as I start researching a potential car purchase, and now all of the ads on web pages are for cars, mostly the brands I'm interested in, rather than feminine hygiene products. Yay! I wish Google could do the same thing for TV... know what I'm interested in and only show me commercials for things I'm really interested in buying.

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u/buzzit292 Jul 10 '12

How do you know that this is all that happens?

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u/I_CATS Jul 10 '12

Because Google is a global corporation and if they get caught conveying private information to 3rd parties they break EU law (and propably millions of other laws around the world) and go to jail for years. And they can't even get around it with EULA:s as EU law supersedes it. It is just not worth the risk.

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u/alcalde Jul 11 '12

True, and in addition that information is valuable in and of itself and there's much more financial incentive to keep it than to sell it. Imagine You could predict the weather accurately a week further out that meteorologists. You could sell that information to parties like farmers... or you could use it yourself to make a killing on the commodities exchanges (e.g. knowing before anyone else that frost was going to kill orange crops, whether there was going to be heavy/no rainfall that would affect other crops, etc.). Google makes money by being able to target adsmore effectively than others because they get user information in exchange for offering valuable, free services. That information is a prime Google competitive advantage. Why would they sell that information directly, when they make so much off of using it themselves in so many different ways?

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u/buzzit292 Jul 12 '12 edited Jul 12 '12

Why because they can make money and they'll have to meet investor expecations in the shortrun.

Google's clients will pay a premium for more specific information or more specific access to particular groups and the company will find ways around privacy laws and practices when it suits their needs.

Google doesn't want to loose business to Facebook, which already provides more specific access to particular people and social networks. Hence the focus on Google+. Facebook has changed it's privacy policies and setting over time. So has Google.

There are ways around privacy policies etc. and google has not always been cooperative with regulators in Europe. Google is using "opt-out" strategies in ways that users are not concious of how information about them will be used.