Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by fauigerzigerk on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:35AM (#6652360)

For me the issue isn't marketing itself. It's that in order to show me personalized ads they need to know a lot about me. They have to compile and store a personal profile that can be stolen or subpoenaed by anyone who is sufficiently capable or powerful.

But I agree that there is a dilemma. The alternative to ad based business models is to make a payment via a credit card, which identifies me even more directly and is subject to even tighter regulation and potential censorship. In the extreme, I have to deal with companies like Apple enforcing their broken moral standards on my phone.

There are no simple solutions to this I'm afraid.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by vdaniuk on Friday November 01, 2013 @10:26AM (#6653930)

I am quite happy to be served personalized ads from Google and even Facebook. I regularly get ads for services that interest me greatly, like digitalocean, heroku, cloud66, newrelic, edx, codeschool, teamtreehouse. Thanks, personalized ads!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by gaius on Friday November 01, 2013 @04:14AM (#6652443)

Microsoft and Apple make money by selling actual products. Google makes money by selling you.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by fpgeek on Friday November 01, 2013 @05:05AM (#6652587)

Do you really think Microsoft and Apple don't sell "you" too?

They have (admittedly less-successful) advertising businesses that they show no signs of abandoning, they boast about the number of accounts and/or the number of credit cards they have for developers and partners and so on.

To a first approximation "everybody" wants your money and "everybody" sells you. Generalizations don't work. You need to look at the bundles that come with products/ecosystems on a case-by-case basis.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by fauigerzigerk on Friday November 01, 2013 @04:28AM (#6652479)

Google isn't selling me. They're selling a service based on information they get from me in exchange for a product they make for me. It's just another form of payment. Every form of payment comes with it's own benefits and drawbacks.

(I didn't downvote you by the way. I never downvote)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by gaius on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:36PM (#6655799)

Except it's not as simple as "don't use GMail and you're safe" - they have their finger in every pie via their ad system. You can very, very easily opt-out of using MS or Apple products.

[ Parent | on HN ]