Google Acquires VirusTotal

Don't forget Android. I too use Chrome,Picasa, streetview, android, gmail etc and will still use V.T

 

I think that this is probably good news & there is a lot of good that could come out of/from this acquisition but I do have my suspicions/worries of some of the possible negative things that could come from this acquisition and to those who are interested in how Google rates in the area of privacy(?) in 2012 according to the EFF (The Electronic Frontier Foundation), you might want to check out their 2012 report which might surprise you like it surprised me :

https://www.eff.org/pages/who-has-your-back

I am still wondering how did Google score so well and Microsoft scored even worse than I had already expected it to score and Microsoft scored even worse than Fakebook (Facebook), I am not saying whether/if/that Google earned this rating legitimately or not, but I do find some of the scores a bit strange/surprising/interesting/curious.

 

not so happy

google now has access to all the things passing through the scanner, and besides the legal implications, can and will create a database with files and IPs. sometime in the distant future we wont be glad about this

plus i strongly doubt more funds were necessary for VT to go on..

 

^ I wonder how many palms they had to grease for that press? ^

 

I also can't see what's wrong with being acquired by Google. A lot of Internet small companies thrive to achieve good results so that they can be eventually bought by a big player and get a lot of well deserved dividends. It's happening all the time with Microsoft, Intel, Symantec, Facebook to name a few, and it is a good omen that the whole thing is actually announced publicly and not kept secret. Google is not evil, one has other alternatives to choose from, evil would be a situation where one is forced into accepting a unique solution.

 

nothing good comes from google.

They only spy on everybody, and everybody knows that.

 

So following your reasoning they will spy on your submitted viruses to VirusTotal, to what purpose if I may ask?

 

Ignoring all the "Google is the evil" for the moment...

...I don't think the definition of evil only applies to being forced into something.

 

Suit yourself, I can see evil in a lot of things, but certainly not with Google. Now if evil is capitalism then we are talking about something else which is a political issue not allowed to be discussed in these forums.

 

FWIW, I don't think the term "evil" is helpful because it is so subjective. What one person considers to be "evil", someone else may not. So at best it is an abbreviation of sorts that is useful only between those of like mindset. At worst, it creates in others the desire to debate its definition which in turn usually creates more noise and less focus. We all probably use it at times, but we should try not to I think.

The issue is one of an entity gaining too much visibility into our activities and particularly across compartments. This can occur as a result of the software we install on our devices. This can occur as a result of our heavy to exclusive use of one ISP. This can also occur as a result of one entity having many "taps" around the Internet. Each of those can, and do, occur regardless of economic or political or religious system. So we can safely, and arguably should (TOS or not), avoid bringing those things into the discussion.

 

I wonder what bright ideas Google might create with this new acquisition.

 

wow...lots of comments and thoughts on this.

Since there are arguably positive and negative outcomes from the acquisition; I believe it boils down to the subjective matter of which you think 'outweighs' the other; thereby influencing someone's stand/position on whether to continue using VT or use an alternative.

 

they won't spy on my submitted viruses, but if i submitt a virus then they have my IP, and then they can spy

 

Hundreds of millions of people all over the world are posting their personal and family photos to Facebook along with personal bios and all the minutiae of their daily lives with a Twitter link up. Add Linkedin which has the complete employment history of untold millions. Hotjobs.com and Monster.com compiled millions and millions of resumes with email addresses, phone #'s and home addresses before that. Dating sites around the world have a complete dossier on all their applicants.

For those that worry about Google maintaining personal information in regarding to surfing tendencies and file uploads, what privacy is there that's really left? How many of the posters who criticized Google in this thread and say they won't use Virustotal would ever give up watching Youtube? Who do you think maintains that wonderful archive of video history that keeps us occupied in the wee hours of the morning?

 

But, but, but you don't understand!
Google knows that after I went to cnn.com, I visited weather.com, and that is the embodiment of pure evil!!

 

Nothing can stop this.

Further consolidation of information in the hands of the few.

The megacorps are the future.

 

"Consolidation of information" makes it sound as if they're taking it and holding onto it for themselves.

 

Am i too open minded or people are too paranoid about Google.

 

probably a bit of both

 

I feel the same way...

 

I find Google to be a very intuitive and strong company but I don't consider the fact that Google just purchased my favorite online virus scanner a good thing unless it stays available (Or they provide me an equal or better solution).

Hail to the Google overlords!

 

It would be interesting if they use this on their DNS services

 

Same here.

 

Very interesting indeed...

 

Another important aspect is the commodification of personal data, behaviour and virtual identities. In the Google/VirusTotal case we are seeing their extension - and the extension of Google's business model - in the realm of discipline and surveillance, similar to the increasingly important role of the 'parapolice' (Rigakos, 2002) in the maintenance of social order. Prins (2006) argued that

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/51/br_33.html

http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/script-ed/vol3-4/prins.asp