Re:DuckDuckGo Sees Record Traffic After NSA PRISM Scandal
by zhemao on Wednesday June 19, 2013 @06:08PM
(#5908719)
Google does encrypt user data at rest. The problem is that they also have the decryption keys. They need to be able to see the data in plain text in order to target ads and improve their services. That's their entire business models. So, there is pretty much zero chance that Google will ever "implement some real encryption and decentralization in its services." If we want a Search Engine/Email Provider/Video Sharing Service/Thousand Other Things Google Does that is decentralized and encrypted client-side, it would have to be built by a different company or community with a different mission and profit model.
Re:DuckDuckGo Sees Record Traffic After NSA PRISM Scandal
by mtgx on Thursday June 20, 2013 @03:50PM
(#5914469)
There are apps where they don't need to do that, such as Hangouts/Gtalk, and possibly even Drive.
Re:DuckDuckGo Sees Record Traffic After NSA PRISM Scandal
by zhemao on Friday June 21, 2013 @05:24PM
(#5921114)
Then they would need a way to do client-side public key encryption in the web browser, which is difficult and not really an important feature as far as the vast majority of their users are concerned.
I think that even if Google themselves never do anything "evil", by any definition, there still remains this problem of "having very important user data" that you don't want to fall "in the wrong hands". The more data it has about the users, the more other, external, "wrong hands", will want it for reasons other than just to sell you advertising.
Unfortunately, those "wrong hands" will most likely be the government, and not just some hackers or other companies, and Google is relatively powerless against them, if they really want all the users' data.
This is why I think that if Google really cared about us, they'd do their best to at least give the users the option to have their data protected even if it falls into those "wrong hands". We need Google to implement some real encryption and decentralization in its services.
If Google really is powerless against the government, then they should leave it up to us to deal with the government, when that moment arrives, but help make it easy for everyone to protect that data.