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Google Says Data is More Like Sunlight Than Oil (businessinsider.com) 88

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Google wants to popularize a more upbeat way of describing data: It's more like sunlight than oil. From a report: Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday morning, Google's chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, said that "data is more like sunlight than oil," adding, "It is like sunshine -- we keep using it, and it keeps regenerating." It's a twist on the well-known phrase "data is the new oil," meaning the world's most valuable resource is information rather than petroleum. Like the oil barons who preceded them, Silicon Valley titans such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon have risen quickly to profit from this new resource and even control its flow. And in another echo of history, regulators are eyeing the industry.
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Google Says Data is More Like Sunlight Than Oil More

Google Says Data is More Like Sunlight Than Oil

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  • More Like Crack (Score:5, Insightful)

    by moehoward ( 668736 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @11:50AM (#58002298)
    At least to Google, Facebook, and Amazon, data is like crack, not happy-happy-sunshine. They are addicted and act just like any other addict.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Perhaps it's like sunshine in the sense that they'll die without it.

    • More like farts. We generate a lot of them and they aren't particularly valuable to us, but we still don't want companies to come and harvest them from us.

      • Re:More Like Crack (Score:4, Funny)

        by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:59PM (#58002692)

        More like farts. We generate a lot of them and they aren't particularly valuable to us, but we still don't want companies to come and harvest them from us.

        I personally don't care if someone harvests my farts. I'd like to think that my farts were making someone's life better somehow.

        • Re:More Like Crack (Score:4, Funny)

          by courteaudotbiz ( 1191083 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:03PM (#58002722) Homepage
          Mmmm well depends on the way my farts are harvested. Is it by forcing a tube in my a-hole? Or standing by and waiting for my farts to come out?

          The way Google, Amazon et. al. are doing it is more like the tube in the ass method. They force a device on (or into) you and take whatever they want (or well, they take everything and filter out. Or not.)

          • Mmmm well depends on the way my farts are harvested. Is it by forcing a tube in my a-hole? Or standing by and waiting for my farts to come out?

            The way Google, Amazon et. al. are doing it is more like the tube in the ass method. They force a device on (or into) you and take whatever they want (or well, they take everything and filter out. Or not.)

            A tube up the arse may be more efficient, but a more palatable method would be to have a pocket sewn into the underwear with special fart-capturing crystals to put into the pocket to catch the farts- then you can just ship the fart-crystal packets off to google, or whoever wants them. I know they sell similar with charcoal to catch odours (but I don't know if the farts can then be efficiently extracted from the charcoal at a later date).

          • The way Google, Amazon et. al. are doing it is more like the tube in the ass method. They force a device on (or into) you and take whatever they want (or well, they take everything and filter out. Or not.)

            Nope. They sit on that pipe because it makes them feel like they have a life outside of work. But actually, when you log into Facebook, you're literally working for Facebook, for free.

          • Don't be silly. No need for human trials, as we can just lock up cows in fart mills.

            Just wait until the certified organic farts are available. Hipsters will pay a hefty premium for that.

    • I was thinking that the whole data industry is more like the international human sex/slave trafficking industry.

      They're buying and selling human souls.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by mspohr ( 589790 )

        Surveillance Capitalism
        https://www.theguardian.com/te... [theguardian.com]

        The headline story is that it’s not so much about the nature of digital technology as about a new mutant form of capitalism that has found a way to use tech for its purposes. The name Zuboff has given to the new variant is “surveillance capitalism”. It works by providing free services that billions of people cheerfully use, enabling the providers of those services to monitor the behaviour of those users in astonishing detail – o

      • Nope. People use these sites because it gives them the sense of well-being. But when you log into Facebook, you're literally working for Facebook, for free. Same with the others.

    • At least to Google, Facebook, and Amazon, data is like crack, not happy-happy-sunshine. They are addicted and act just like any other addict.

      My first thought was Data is more like Cigarettes. The big data companies deny that them handling our data is harmful to us, what's the loss of a little privacy, whilst meanwhile we're seeing all sorts of problems caused by people's whose data is being harvested.

      It's mainstream, and just like once upon a time most men smoked; right now most men are giving away their data- it's culturally acceptable to just let Big Data take your data and damage your lungs of privacy.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pieroxy ( 222434 )

        whilst meanwhile we're seeing all sorts of problems caused by people's whose data is being harvested.

        What problems are you referring to ?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

      If data is like oil, Google and Facebook are like monopolies on oil drilling rigs. They've 'bought up' all the drilling rigs and rig manufacturers in the world, so that new rigs cannot be manufactured cost-effectively by anybody else. Now, competitors, go out there and drill for all that free, self-replenishing oil - if you can.

      In any case, the Google shill is choosing her analogy selectively - presumably to fend off criticism of Google as a monopolist. But the real problem with data collection is data c

    • Re: More Like Crack (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Google is more like cancer than a cure.

    • Nope. Google, Facebook and Amazon are all addicted to money. That money is generated by these companies' (product) users, who are addicted to playing the role of their own selfish fantasies.

  • Don't be evil...do the right thing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aicrules ( 819392 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @11:57AM (#58002318)
    Whatever altruistic motto you want to portray, Google, this doesn't reflect that. You're taking an equally lucrative and shady business and trying to make it sound better by marketing it. This is one of the purest forms of evil. Data gathering and monetization of that data is much more like oil than sunlight, and that includes the bad ways. Oil barons, data barons, both are looking for a way to get and control as much of it as possible and are willing to do just about anything in that pursuit because it is profitable. There are people who have abused sunlight as an renewable energy source in the same way oil has been abused to the detriment of society. If you're overt about it, at least people can make informed decisions about supporting you. If you try to hide it or sugarcoat it like this BS attempt, well, that means you are evil. You don't have to sugarcoat good truth. Anyway, I like what google does with my data, but the fact that they are attempting this form of dishonesty makes me reconsider.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Desler ( 1608317 )

      Whatever altruistic motto you want to portray, Google, this doesn't reflect that.

      This just in: Google was never altruistic. That motto was purely to scam naive idiots. They've been raping your privacy for profit since day one.

    • There are people who have abused sunlight as an renewable energy source in the same way oil has been abused to the detriment of society.

      Ahh yes. Who could forget the great solar panel spill of '04? Or the constant solar smog exuding from the solar plants every day? Or the ongoing war in Sunstania. They said it was for peacekeeping purposes. I'm convinced they just want to get their hands on all that sweet, sweet sunlight.

      • Ahh yes. Who could forget the great solar panel spill of '04?

        Are you talking about 2104? Because this may be the case by then.

        Or the constant solar smog exuding from the solar plants every day?

        Is that what the lead and cadmium leaching from solar panels discarded in landfills will be called?

        Or the ongoing war in Sunstania. They said it was for peacekeeping purposes.

        It's certainly possible that various materials needed for batteries and solar panels very well could cause unstable regions to become the new middle east.

        I fear that solar is going to become the new nuclear, though I hope I'm wrong. I remember when I was a kid, nuclear everything was going to fix all of our woes. No one wants to discuss the pot

    • Conservatives in the U.S. are so stupid, they don't consider the actual value of the proposal they just look at the marketing.

      No wonder the Republicans get so many votes they are super slick.

      Not much has changed since Watergate.
  • Data would be like sunshine, if Facebook/Google/etc were capable of blocking out large portions of the sky to prevent the sun from shining on anyone else. Hey, maybe that's why Facebook [wired.com] is building a satellite and Google [bbc.com] is building balloons.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Terwin ( 412356 )

      Data would be like sunshine, if Facebook/Google/etc were capable of blocking out large portions of the sky to prevent the sun from shining on anyone else.

      I do that.
      I've got perhaps a 1/4 acre lot where I block out the sun for my exclusive use.
      I hear Google, Apple, and Amazon all have some quite sizable areas where they block out the sun for the exclusive use of the company and it's employees.

      On the other hand Disney has a quite sizable area near Orlando, FL where they sell short-term access to their sunlight(and things it reflects from) at fairly high prices.

      My sister even has a multi-acre lot for her exclusive use where she uses her sunlight to grow fruit,

    • Google and Facebook hold on to data to build ever richer profiles on people forever.

      A better analogy is that Data is like Rain

      And Google and Facebook own all the water rights to groundwater; as well as are claiming rights to Rainfall and daming all streams leaving their property.

  • Says a lot about the amount of data Google gets (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Monster_user ( 5075027 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:17PM (#58002424)
    This is just Google bragging about the insane quantities of data the get through their various platforms and services. Data is oil indicates that there is significant value in data. Data is sunshine means that you get so much data thrown at you, that you begin to notice clouds, rain clouds, and other weather patterns in the data. Sunshine also invokes shadows. At night a shadow is impenetrable, buried in the darkness of the unknown, you have to shine the light directly on the object your interested in. In the daylight a shadow conceals almost nothing. Like Facebook "shadow profiles" of people without accounts.

    Data is sunshine also implies that there is a recurring pattern to the data, like an ebb and flow of the tide, or seasonal changes, or the rotation of the earth. The data refreshes, it doesn't change significantly.

    This implies that data is still oil, and validates the usefulness of data. Sunshine is validation of the data. Oil is the data.

  • If data is like sunlight... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kamakazi ( 74641 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:21PM (#58002440)

    Why is it that the companies mining it keep their practices so deep in the shadows?

    • I don't know that Google, Facebook or anyone else who mine data actually keep anything in the shadows. It's all very simple. If you are online someone is monitoring you. Someone collects every step you take on line, every link you click, where you are, where you've been. Physically and electronically.

      With a great deal of effort you can thin the data a little or help ensure its kept in separate buckets that can't easily be linked together. But make no mistake someone still has it.

      Use a VPN? They have to actu

  • Rent seekers (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:21PM (#58002442)
    All that data would be worthless without underlying "fundamentals" economy. You still have to produce widgets that are wanted by consumers that can afford to pay for it.

    Google and such are just rent-seeking, where they artificially insert themselves between producers and consumers.

  • And Google is the new Standard Oil.

  • Statistical analysis tells us that if we take a small subset of data we can make some pretty strong predictions about the general population. Therefore you don't need billions of records to make strong predictions.

    The data is also out of date almost immediately as people do change so it's better to take small samples and analyse them than to try to gather all the data possible.

    Also no one is average in fact when they calculated what an average PHYSICAL frame should be they found that no one was close to

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tomhath ( 637240 )

      You need to get current with the new hipster buzzwords: AI, Knowledge Discovery, Machine Learning, etc.

      Statistical analysis is only for people who understand statistics.

  • Regenerate this (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Data does not "regenerate" it accumulates. The more you accumulate the more it's worth. Google is like Smaug in that it knows every item in its hoard.
    • Sunlight does not regenerate either. Once the elements for fusion are gone and the star cools down, the spent photons won't help you recover the light.

  • Shrek corollary on changing metaphors. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "Ogres are not like parfaits. Ogres are like onions. End of story"

    I'm sorry the oil metaphor is not ecologically palatable. It fits better. Data is formed from the dead carcasses of ancient systems and must be drilled into and refined to get any good out of it.

  • The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money, it's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons. There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!
  • Yes these folks are like a Cancer for sure.

  • Neither (Score:4, Interesting)

    by chispito ( 1870390 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:44PM (#58002586)
    Oil? Sunlight? Those are both stupid analogies. Data are simply information. You do not need an analogy to explain that.

  • Where's my SPF1000 sunscreen at? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:48PM (#58002620) Journal
    You're not welcome to my data, now or ever, I do not consent to your collecting it, and I sure as fuck don't consent to your selling it if you had it.

  • Why was the first thing that came to my mind that the DOD used the term "sunshine unit" briefly for strontium units [wikipedia.org] until even they couldn't take the ridicule anymore?

  • The problem is that the data has a direct cost to humanity. And to those who say that 'privacy is dead' and 'data is everywhere - deal with it'; until we find a way to do away with prejudice in any form, data must be protected. Unfortunately, no matter who you are, no matter what your persuasions, there is another group who will hate you, charge you more, take advantage of you for something. So change human nature, then we can talk about data as sunlight.

  • More genius (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Sunlight us actually useful. Big data, and arguably the modern, neutered by greed and bias Google, not so much.

  • Self-Serving Simile (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Blue Stone ( 582566 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:20PM (#58002802) Homepage Journal

    Data is not like sunshine.

    Data is not a natural resource, because that data is generated not by a natural phenomenon to whom all have access, it is (typically) generated by people.

    In that sense, data is more like blood.

    Which would make Google and Facebook more like vampires and us, their victims.

    Sunlight, if anything, would be the GDPR and other regulations, shining a light on their activities, which is the last thing they want.

    Doesn't that make more sense than Google's skewed, self-serving analogy?

  • It's more like water (Score:3)

    by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:43PM (#58002922)
    Deviously clever of them to use sunlight in their analogy, since sunlight doesn't belong to anyone and is free for anyone to receive.

    Data is more like fresh water. It's also renewable and free. But it pools up on certain private property. You cannot access it on someone else's property without trespassing or first getting their permission. Which is something these data mining companies hide from their "customers" inside dense EULA agreements. If they're so certain that their users have willingly given them permission, then they wouldn't object to a law which requires them to state in bold at the top of their sign-up page and EULA what data they collect and how they use it, right?

  • More like a sun going supernova (Score:3)

    by thisisauniqueid ( 825395 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:47PM (#58002944)
    Based on the exponential growth of data, it's more like the sun going supernova, or at least turning into a red giant.

  • Greenwashing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @02:00PM (#58003018)

    is the technical term.

  • Use SPF 15 (at a minimum) when browsing the web.

  • Excessive sunlight causes cancer
    Excessive data collection....

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