remember, if the service if free, you're the product
And that's exactly why I don't use anything that even has the tiniest, remotest connection to Google.
Android is a free product. It is also a stolen product (which is essentially why Google can't charge for it). Gmail is certified spyware (remember Google's quote to the public about not expecting any privacy if you use Gmail). If you use Google Search, understand that everything you search is not only stamped with your ip address and permanently stored in their massive data centers, but also cross-referenced against ALL of the data in your ENTIRE Gmail account (yes Google scans every single word in every single one of your emails), or if you have any kind of Android device—the absolute snakepit and mother of all spywares—cross-referenced with its entire contents, including your address book, private notes, apps, phone, photo and video data, current and previous location and travel info, and much, much more. Want to use Google's *free* cloud photo storage/sharing site? Understand that you've essentially signed away the rights to all of your photos for Google to do with as they please, in perpetuity. Ever need to complain and/or sue them over any of this? Read the fine print when you signed up, because you agreed to it. All of it. Google's exponential rate of your privacy's invasion in exchange for their free or cheap services or products is unfathomable.
I stopped using Gmail in 2005 (I was part of a beta testing/launch group), haven't used Google Search in 4 years, trashed my Dropcam the very day Nest bought them (thankfully don't own any Nest products; there's a brilliant idea—let Google spy IN your house), cancelled my Songza account the day they bought them, thankfully have never owned a single Android device (iPhone since 2007) and have only used YouTube with an anonymous email/account for the last 5 years.
Nasty company. Avoid them and anyone having anything to do with them (e.g. this dash cam) LIKE THE PLAGUE, unless, of you course, you don't care about your privacy. What's sad is that the type of people who are wary of this new dashcam are the very people who not only champion Google's products, but are completely unaware of the 24-7 privacy invasion from their Google products (all of which do it on a scale far more massive than this dashcam could ever do).
And for the record, Apple and Microsoft are NOTHING like Google. Each of them collects some level of data to an extent, but nowhere near the same universe or with the same intent, or—and this is a critical point—mine or cross-join your data. You are not Apple's or Microsoft's product. Unlike google.com, you can simply go to apple/microsoft.com or read through their annual reports to understand the full list of their products. With Google, you ARE their product.
