HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why don't companies trust each other like they demand of us to them?

4 points by alostvoice ↗ HN
Take Windows 10. Microsoft is demanding we trust them to store our data and usage patterns with them. Yet at the same time, they don't trust others. Why doesn't Microsoft just use Amazon Cloud or Google Compute for their own services instead of building up their own Azure? Why doesn't Microsoft just promote Dropbox instead of demanding the use of OneDrive? Why doesn't all of Microsoft's websites just use Google Analytics? Why isn't Microsoft just using Gmail for it's own mail system like Google recommends to millions of others?

If not Microsoft, why doesn't Google trust other companies like they demand of us? Why did Google create Android instead of trusting Apple's iOS for mobile? Why doesn't Google just offload their entire servers to Amazon Cloud instead of trying to manage all those data centers? Why doesn't Google just use Oracle and Microsoft Windows Enterprise instead of building their own system? What is Google so afraid of that they don't want to use software (and now hardware) created outside of Google?

Apple. Why is Apple creating it's own map software instead of just letting everyone use Google Maps and Gmail?

I'll stop here because I can go on and on with nearly every single tech company which demand we trust them.

To conclude, I've read hundreds of articles and comments saying we should trust the companies otherwise we're the ones who are wrong. And these are from highly respected organizations with millions of viewers! "There is nothing to worry about." Many of them say "this is the future".

Yet those same companies, for some reason, don't trust other companies with the same data they demand of us. Why? Why does it looks like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, and so forth are the ones stuck in the past? Why don't they trust each other like they demand of us to them? Isn't this the future?

5 comments

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jnbiche
It has nothing to do with companies not trusting each other (although it's true they often don't). Companies don't use their competitors' services because they're...competing. Not because they don't trust them. Often, if there is an area where one company isn't competing with another, they'll form a strategic relationship in which they "trust" each other to provide services to their respective customers.

So not lack of trust, but rather competition is driving the phenomena you're describing.

AnotherMarc
Those companies decided to build their own solutions rather than use others not due to distrust, but because they saw a business opportunity. They all use 3rd party products somewhere in the organization, but if they make their own product, would you really expect them to use a competing offering?
borplk
As others have mentioned I have no idea why you are basing everything on this assumption that it is because of a lack of trust. Of course they don't use each others' services! They are competing with each other, it's business 101.
Zigurd
Commercial enterprises are also in the business of separating you from your money. Information asymmetry is just as serious for consumers as it is for competitors.
codeonfire
Well, businesses are not as honest as you think. Google would be reading Microsoft emails in a microsecond. The only reason individual people allow a third party to maintain their data is that they usually don't have anything of monetary value in there. Certain Microsoft emails are worth millions of dollars in the wrong hands. That and there is public trust of the brand that they won't do anything stupid.