

Google is not what it seems - rukshn
https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/

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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8500970](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8500970)

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bilazip
Almost all of the Internet players that provide "free" storage and/or
email/photo services are actually performing information gathering for the
state. To use any of these services, you have to provide personal information.
So the public is providing two sets of information. One set identifies the
user and the other set contains their day to day activities. It's actually
quite creepy the way some of these players crosslink their services and share
login credentials. I have this strong mental image of "analysts" combing
through this information looking for "interesting" patterns. To say the public
is woefully uninformed about the real purpose of this information
storage/gathering is breathtaking.

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rukshn
what option people have? wherever they host their content it will be accessed
by the government

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scottlocklin
I hate commenting on political posts, but 1000 times this. The US military
industrial intelligence complex has always been deeply embedded in the telecom
and tech industry. Just because you have cool goth chicks on rollerskates and
nerds in silver pants at Google doesn't mean they are any different. Hell, I
vaguely know a cool goth chick who works in Ft. Meade. And now that Google is
a company about the same size as Exxon, of course they have their shadowy
fixers and Pinkertons. Facebook is the same. For all the noise made about how
wealthy Russian oligarchs need FSB connections to succeed; it is the same
thing here.

