
Ask HN: Why is there so much hate for Google? - vkdelta
Long question: Ask HN: Why is there so much hate for Google (yet, lot of folks want to work for Google or one of the FAANG companies)<p>I see lot of hate for google and it was very evident when google acquired Fitbit. Lot of us wanted to just rid of pebble.  Yet, I see lot of people trying to get into Google (or one of the FAANG companies). I saw it from Blind app posts but I understand demographics of Blind vs HN is different.
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JohnFen
My main beef with Google is very simple: I detest their practice of spying on
me at every available opportunity and the extreme difficulty in avoiding them.
I have several smaller problems with Google, mostly around various changes
they've helped foist onto internet protocols.

Although Google isn't all bad (no company is), I do think that on the whole
they aren't a positive force. As a dev, I honestly can't think of anything
that would make working for them seem like a good idea.

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ChrisCinelli
Google and Facebook have been afraid of the risk of regulators for years
before the news started calling them the bad guys. Fear has never been a good
advisor.

The news have been picked on (lack of) privacy for a few years now. On a side
it has helped people to see what happens with their data. But on the other
side the campaign against Google and Facebook had gone far beyond the reality
of the time. Until the accusations made during this "hate campaign" became the
new reality.

As people started to lose trust and "hate" picked up, the news kept going on
their crusade picturing Google and Facebook as public enemy number one.

The public believed in the new public image of Google pictured by the
newspapers.

As a few years ago as today, every time something bad can be written, the
newspapers are going ahead and selectively pick information to write pieces of
news with a click-bate title on how bad Google is. That surely gets clicks,
and clicks bring page views, and page views bring revenues from advertisers.

The narrative has been clearly the 'Don't Be Evil' company is 'evil'. Google
again did the wrong thing: [https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-
mentions-of-do...](https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-
dont-be-evil-from-1826153393)

Clearly the most concerned people have been the activist-kind of employees
that Google has.

So now the company was attacked not only from the outside but also from the
inside.

That made the the company even more reactive. Instead of ignoring the press
and reinforce their unique culture, they decided to look at how they could
avoid being pictured as the bad guys. But that made their accuser stronger.

There are a few other things that were going in the world and inside Google
but I think that this is the biggest driver that turned Google in the hated
company that is today.

It became a self fulfilling prophecy. [https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/31/google-
veterans-the-company-...](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/31/google-veterans-the-
company-has-become-unrecognizable.html)

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verdverm
There is love/hate for all the major tech companies.

I personally prefer Google and the only thing I don't have running in their
systems is the fiber to my flat

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usr1106
Their business model is based on data prostitution. You give away your privacy
they give you "free" services.

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ChrisCinelli
Interesting phrase "data prostitution".

Google's business model worked well until everybody was led to think that that
model is "evil." I am fine to trade receiving some ads with free services. But
unfortunately that is not the full story.

The data they collected started to be used for evil ends so there is some
truth.

However as far as I know, on the current Internet having full privacy is an
illusion. Your ISP or VPN provider in some regards know more about what you do
when you are on the Internet than Google does.

