They could, and this pisses me off as well. Most highly functional apps need "all" permissions anyway at this point, whether they're used to your benefit or not, so the security model as always been ass.

The call waiting on almost all handsets is also a UI design grade A, highest order clusterfuck of a dipshit monkey's idea.

Anyone ever heard of the google toilet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrontojPWEE

Yes,I know youtube, but the video is still funny. No google hate thread is complete without it

I do wish Google would recall their original motto.

Their original motto? What do you mean?

Actually, I'm not sure, but I think it was his first android. I don't know much about mobiles, I have the dumbest one I could find and even that is mostly for work (and for drunk emergencies, occasionally). I'm pretty sure what it did was somehow link my friend's contact of me on his phone to my own personal profile on google, and display info from there. I sounds kinda logical when I write it down, but it seriously freaked me out.

Their unofficially-official motto was "Don't be evil"

The push for Google+ was really pushing it. I don't really do much with my Google+ account other than changing the profile picture just to see if it would work.

The number one thing that really bugs me about Google is how its Youtube team has been screwing up Youtube with the big open white spaces and basically making it more difficult to keep track of subscriptions and favorites. I find myself preferring the Youtube application (I REFUSE to use the made up bullshit term "app") on my Droid 3 instead of the actual website. Seriously, they should have stuck with the 2011 or early 2012 Youtube website layout. It was bad enough they tried to make it look more like Facebook.

As for advertisements, I normally don't care about them one way or another. I would like to see Google have a payment option for those who don't want to see them but advertisements do pay for the costs of the service and prevent me from handing over money.

By the way, not to change the subject but why did people make a big deal about Microsoft bundling a web browser with Windows? I ask because that comic link brought up that question in my mind and Internet Explorer is how people usually get hold of the other browsers like Firefox.

Also, isn't the reason for the lack of lawsuits against Google related to the terms of use agreements? If the terms clearly state that Google will have permission to access personal info by user agreement, then wouldn't that legitimize the info tracking?

Because it is Microsoft. And because they offered a free browser with the OS and roflstomped Netscape. People made a big deal about them including Windows Media Player too. I mean, fucking come on, its a damn media player for fuck's sake, an incredibly basic thing that every OS must have.

And the EU is still continuing its retarded politics, there were some talks that they would fine Microsoft one billion USD just because some chance / a bug in SP1 caused the retarded browser bailout screen to not appear.

It was a case of Microsoft using their monopoly in one area ( the OS ) to give themselves an advantage in another (competing for market share with browsers and other utilities). That the MS programs were often given preferential treatment by the OS itself (having access to MS-only APIs, etc) made things worse, as did the fact that many of those MS programs couldn't be removed from the system (not without causing all kinds of other problems, anyway) even if the user didn't want them.

Google doesn't have the same kind of monopoly or near-monopoly over its users; they'd have to be at the point of "Google TOS required in order to get online at all" to be in a similar position. That doesn't mean that their practices aren't drawing fire from competition and privacy authorities though.

I second this, Microsoft was just an easy target. While Microsoft has done some really questionable things over the years, but this was I don't understand. If someone is unhappy with any of the default programs than download and install another, it is not rocket science.

OT: I think google and facebook have much in common, the main problem being how much is too much? Where is the line between the fair use of information versus the respect of user privacy? If it is out their information is available, should it still be used? What if information is posted about an individual without their notice such as a picture or some rather personal information? Would it still be fair to use it?

The point is this is a clear cut case of technology advancing faster than people can comprehend and faster than the law. Especially, since their is a generational gap between those who grew up with technology and understand it (or at the use of it), versus the older generation who are not as up-to-date on it (and those people still dominate the legal system).

yeah, google is evil and I use bing out of spite even though Microsoft is also evil. At least microsoft hasn't infiltrated my phone and tried to trick me into giving them access to my pictures I take

duckduckgo and startpage are great alternatives for searching ^^

yeah theres a difference between random spam and spying on you so they can sell your information to spamers.

my dad got pissed one day when his android update asked for access to his pictures and called tmobil about it. They tried to explain it away by saying all they'll do is for example"see that you have alot of pictures of your dog on your phone and send you adds for dogfood with airpush or something"
Thats exactly what he didn't want and called to complain about lol
I think customer service guy was pulling that out his ass with the first explanation/guess that came to mind though. they wouldn't have been dumb enough to do that and also let customer service say they did. And I don't know what dad updated but don't think my phone asked for that...then again i just click through that stuff. (could have been anything. probably his flashlight updated...almost all things in the android playstore go crazy overboard with permissions they shouldn't possibly reasonably need to function? Adds from internet access should be enough without needing your fine gps location too)

thanks

I can see why they no longer use that motto.