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Alphabet Vs Apple

Let's face it, the internet is a very expensive thing to build and run. Right now the cost is distributed in such a way that the end user directly pays a small fraction of it. I'm sure indirectly that we all indeed pay the full cost. People seem to be OK with that.

I'm not sure if people are really OK with it. I do see more and more people putting question marks on the breadth of personal data kept by the Googles and the Facebooks of this world. At least some people I know were just ignorant and did not make a conscious decision to tell their whole life to Facebook in exchange for a free service.
 
“Exposed” author Bernard Harcourt spoke to us recently about privacy in the digital age. In this video he explains how Google and Facebook get our data and what they do with it.

Facebook and Google sell all your info - Business Insider
<script height="489px" width="869px" src="http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e&ec=BvNWt0MDE6F1PRUtoFI9vkuaEC8Xulyd"></script>

The issue is more serious than people thought especially for those social networking apps who are not regulated by any law of United States and lack of any transparency. For example "WeChat" is based in China and "Line" has its headquarters in Japan. Each of them claimed to have around 700 million users worldwide. Like Facebook, they will grab every detail of your phone's contact database. WeChat is also looking into every text message you sent/received in order to do whatever they want to do.
 
I wonder how much data processing and mining they would be doing. 700 million users worldwide each of them (WeChat, Line,...) and let's say on the average 10 exchanges per person on messages, emails, Facebook clicks, posts,... Who would be doing the analysis of that data and how they can use it for potential advantages, of course other than hacking someone's accounts which in my view should be minimal (criminal conspiracy)? If I look at from marketing angle, I get unwanted sales mails in double digits everyday, but none of the items I buy based on those mails.
 
I wonder how much data processing and mining they would be doing. 700 million users worldwide each of them (WeChat, Line,...) and let's say on the average 10 exchanges per person on messages, emails, Facebook clicks, posts,... Who would be doing the analysis of that data and how they can use it for potential advantages, of course other than hacking someone's accounts which in my view should be minimal (criminal conspiracy)? If I look at from marketing angle, I get unwanted sales mails in double digits everyday, but none of the items I buy based on those mails.

When it comes to spying, the capacity is always an issue for China or USA. But there will never be a limit for how much they want to collect. From Snowden's story about NSA and China's great firewall doing censorship, we know if they have a need they will do it without worrying about cost.

In terms of usability, for example by collecting email and phone number from 700 million users, a hacker may obtain a CIA chief's personal email address and try to hack into or send a message with Trojan to that email address. I can think many evil uses with such information.
 
For example "WeChat" is based in China and "Line" has its headquarters in Japan.

Strange, we say the same here in Europe about American companies and apps and for example gathering of personal health related information.
 
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