Google "do no evil" meta thread

pmbug · Sep 28, 2018

I remember when the internet was nascent and navigating it was an adventure. Google was born and quickly killed off it's competitors in the space like Alta Vista, Netscape and Ask Jeeves. They made a big deal about their corporate motto being "do no evil" which, back in the day, seemed really odd. Doesn't seem so odd today - especially since they dropped that motto some time ago.

Anyway, I could probably write a small book on the various evils that I perceive with Google, but it seems like Julian Assange has already written a book and an excerpt from the book (it's fairly long) is posted here:

https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/

For the record, I try not to support Google whenever possible. I changed the default search engine in my web browser to https://duckduckgo.com/ . Google lives off of the ad revenue from it's search engine. If you don't want to support them, stop using their search engine.

DuckDuckGo (DDG) is an Internet search engine that emphasizes protecting searchers' privacy and avoiding the filter bubble of personalized search results.[3] DuckDuckGo distinguishes itself from other search engines by not profiling its users and by deliberately showing all users the same search results for a given search term,[5] and emphasizes returning the best results, rather than the most results, generating those results from over 400 individual sources, including crowdsourced sites such as Wikipedia, and other search engines like Bing, Yahoo!, and Yandex.[6][7]
...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo

11C1P · Sep 28, 2018

I've been using duckduckgo.com for years as well. Sometimes I will have to use either bing or google, cause I don't like their map feature & they don't seem to have as good a choice in images as the other 2.

pmbug · Dec 5, 2018

Also: https://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2018/12/05/the-creepy-line-n2536980

11C1P · Dec 5, 2018

.

Big brother is watching & taking notes. Between Google, Facebook, Twitter & Amazon, the amount of data they could mine on people who don't want to be data mined & have done nothing wrong is absolutely insane. I use Firefox & Duckduckgo & don't use FB that much. We do order quite a bit from Amazon, especially in the last year & a half to send stuff to our son in the army. I try to turn off history & clear it out when I forget, but do they really stop collecting your history or delete it, just cause we ask? I'm very dubious.

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pmbug · Dec 5, 2018

I use Firefox (FF) too. By the way, two excellent extensions for FF are NoScript and PrivacyBadger. NoScript give you granular control over what javascript has permission to run. It's great for security (blocks malicious javascript), privacy (blocks javascript that collects info on you for 3rd parties) and faster browsing (less overhead). PrivacyBadger supposedly blocks web beacons and such that also track your movement from site to site, but I'm not well versed in exactly how it works (but I trust the author/EFF).

11C1P · Dec 5, 2018

PMBug said:
I use Firefox (FF) too. By the way, two excellent extensions for FF are NoScript and PrivacyBadger. NoScript give you granular control over what javascript has permission to run. It's great for security (blocks malicious javascript), privacy (blocks javascript that collects info on you for 3rd parties) and faster browsing (less overhead). PrivacyBadger supposedly blocks web beacons and such that also track your movement from site to site, but I'm not well versed in exactly how it works (but I trust the author/EFF).

I'll have to check them out, I have all 3rd party cookies blocked & have to grant permission to run flash, but I don't think so for java. I wonder if that extension is similar to selecting "no page style"? I also have it set to block all trackers.

11C1P · Dec 5, 2018

.

I wonder if he said it with a straight face? :rotflmbo: :flail:

.

Zuckerberg denies Facebook ever 'sold anyone's data'

.

"Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday said the company has never sold user data after a member of the British Parliament released a trove of documents that he claimed shows the company gave special access to third parties without user consent.

In 2014, "we decided on a model where we continued to provide the developer platform for free and developers could choose to buy ads if they wanted," Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Facebook directly addressing the U.K. lawmaker Damian Collins and the mass of internal documents he released.

"Other ideas we considered but decided against included charging developers for usage of our platform, similar to how developers pay to use Amazon AWS or Google Cloud," he said. "To be clear, that's different from selling people's data. We've never sold anyone's data."

Collins, who heads a U.K. Parliament committee on social media, released a trove of documents he had seized from a firm suing Facebook, which Collins said seems to show that Facebook entered into "whitelisting agreements" with companies without its users' consent.

"Facebook have clearly entered into whitelisting agreements with certain companies, which meant that after the platform changes in 2014/15 they maintained full access to friends data," Collins wrote in a note attached to the document dump. "It is not clear that there was any user consent for this, nor how Facebook decided which companies should be whitelisted or not."

Zuckerberg said Wednesday that certain developers were purged from the platform in 2014 because they were "sketchy." He noted that Facebook does not "let everyone develop on our platform" for a number of reasons.

"Some of the developers whose sketchy apps were kicked off our platform sued us to reverse the change and give them more access to people's data," he wrote. "We're confident this change was the right thing to do and that we'll win these lawsuits."

Facebook has been under intense scrutiny over its privacy policies and how it handles user data.

Lawmakers in Britain tore into Zuckerberg for failing to appear personally before a parliamentary panel last month and some American lawmakers have urged increase regulatory oversight over the company."

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pmbug · Apr 12, 2019

* bump *

...
Gizmodo's Kashmir Hill recently accepted a monumental challenge: blocking tech giants from her everyday life due to privacy concerns and sheer curiosity. But she took the challenge to extreme lengths to demonstrate just how pervasive these companies are beyond just the apps they provide.

How? By actively blocking all communication with Google's 8,699,648 (!) IP addresses on every device she owned. Not merely finding alternatives for the various Google apps we all rely on, but preventing those devices from pinging a single Google server.

The results were both calamitous and eye-opening.
...

More: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasone...-blocking-google-from-your-life/#6ad978921fec

pmbug · Aug 3, 2019

So YouTube is owned by Google, the "don't be evil" company. Surely they wouldn't engage in capricious and arbitrary censorship, right?

Google-owned YouTube manually adjusted search results for “Federal Reserve” after MSNBC host Chris Hayes complained about the prominence of anti-Fed videos in the top results, according to a source who worked at the tech company.

Google allegedly added the search term “Federal Reserve” to a “blacklist” file of “controversial” YouTube search queries. This caused search results for the term to be re-ranked to favor YouTube-approved mainstream media sources.
...

More: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019...results-in-response-to-msnbc-hosts-complaint/

pmbug · Aug 12, 2019

Google Chrome "Incognito mode" is not so incognito...

With the release of Chrome 76, Google fixed a loophole that allowed web sites to detect if a visitor was using Incognito mode. Unfortunately, their fix led to two other methods that can still be used to detect when a visitor is browsing privately.

Some web sites were using Incognito mode detection in order to prevent users from bypassing paywalls or to give private browsing users a different browsing experience.

This was being done by checking for the availability of Chrome's FileSystem API, which was disabled in Incognito mode. If a site could access the FileSystem API then the visitor was in a normal browsing session and if it could not access the API the user was in Incognito mode.

As Google wanted users to be able to browse the web privately and for their browsing mode choices to be private as well, they have closed a loophole by making the API available in both browsing modes. As part of this fix, instead of using disk storage for the FileSystem API, when in Incognito mode they are using a transient memory filesystem that gets cleared when a session is closed.

The use of a memory filesystem, though, create two new loopholes that could be used to detect Incognito mode, which are described below.
...
Unfortunately, sites have already started to use Mishra's filesystem quota detection method to determine if a visitor is in Incognito mode.

As noted by Microsoft Edge developer Eric Lawrence, the New York Times, is testing this method to detect when a visitor in in private mode.
...

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-mode-can-still-be-detected-by-these-methods/

11C1P · Aug 12, 2019

PMBug said:
So YouTube is owned by Google, the "don't be evil" company. Surely they wouldn't engage in capricious and arbitrary censorship, right?

More: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019...results-in-response-to-msnbc-hosts-complaint/

They've been blocking or demonetizing most videos/channels that are gun related, especially ones that are even remotely "how to". The video that I watched to help me build my first AR lower got taken down with in the last few months. Taofledermaus (which I think a lot of people on here would like) who often shoot weird projectiles to see what the do has been getting hammered lately. They also do a lot of other non projectile related testing that is very interesting too.

pmbug · May 16, 2020

*bump*

A group of state attorneys general led by Texas are likely to file an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc’s Google and are working on potential litigation for later this year, a person familiar with the situation said on Friday.

The Justice Department is also moving toward bringing a case as soon as this summer, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-lawsuits-against-google-source-idUSKBN22R37I

Some high priced lawyers are gonna make bank this year.

searcher · Dec 30, 2022

Google to pay Indiana $20 million to resolve privacy suit

searcher · Jan 1, 2023

US Navy Opens Medical Vault For Google

Editorial
January 1, 2023

by James Bandler (ProPublica) In early February 2016, the security gate at a U.S. military base near Washington, D.C., swung open to admit a Navy doctor accompanying a pair of surprising visitors: two artificial intelligence scientists from Google.

In a cavernous, temperature-controlled warehouse at the Joint Pathology Center, they stood amid stacks holding the crown jewels of the center’s collection: tens of millions of pathology slides containing slivers of skin, tumor biopsies and slices of organs from armed service members and veterans.

Standing with their Navy sponsor behind them, the Google scientists posed for a photograph, beaming.

Mostly unknown to the public, the trove and the staff who study it have long been regarded in pathology circles as vital national resources: Scientists used a dead soldier’s specimen that was archived here to perform the first genetic sequencing of the 1918 Flu.

Read the full article:

US Navy Opens Medical Vault For Google

by James Bandler (ProPublica) In early February 2016, the security gate at a U.S. military base near Washington, D.C., swung open to admit a Navy doctor accompanying a pair of...

gcaptain.com

pmbug · Jan 24, 2023

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday filed its second antitrust lawsuit against Google in just over two years. ...

This lawsuit, which is focused on Google's online advertising business and seeks to make Google divest parts of the business, is the first against the company filed under the Biden administration. The Department's earlier lawsuit, filed in October 2020 under the Trump administration, accused Google of using its alleged monopoly power to cut off competition for internet search through exclusionary agreements. That case is expected to go to trial in September.
...

More (long):

DOJ files second antitrust suit against Google, seeks to break up its ad business

The lawsuit targets Google's advertising business and comes after reports that DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter had been cleared to work on Google.

www.cnbc.com

pmbug · Jan 27, 2023

...
Experts interviewed for this article said the DOJ will face the challenge of charting relatively underexplored areas of antitrust law in proving to the court that Google's conduct violated the law and harmed competition without benefitting consumers. Though that's a tall order, it could come with a huge upside if the agency succeeds, possibly expanding the scope of antitrust law for digital monopoly cases to come.
...
Compared to the DOJ's earlier lawsuit, which argued Google maintained its monopoly over search services through exclusionary contracts with phone manufacturers, this one advances more nontraditional theories of harm, according to Francis, the NYU Law professor and former FTC official. That also makes it more likely that Google will move to dismiss the case to at least narrow the claims it may have to fight later on — a move it did not take in the earlier suit, he added.

"This case breaks much more new ground and it articulates theories, or it seems to articulate theories, that are right out on the border of what existing antitrust prohibits," Francis said. "And we're going to find out, when all is said and done, where the boundaries of digital monopolization really lie."
...

The DOJ's antitrust case against Google is ambitious but risky

If the government gets its way, it could result in the breakup of Google's digital advertising business and expand the boundaries of antitrust law.

www.cnbc.com

pmbug · Sep 12, 2023

Google's trial begins today. The Department of Justice has sued the tech giant for cornering more than 90 percent of the search engine market. The government argues that this dominance reflects anticompetitive practices, while Google counters that its search engine is simply a preferred service.

"It's the government's first major monopoly case to make it to trial in decades and the first in the age of the modern internet," notes NPR. "The Justice Department's case hinges on claims that Google illegally orchestrated its business dealings, so that it's the first search engine people see when they turn on their phones and web browsers. The government says Google's goal was to stomp out competition."
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... The Google trial is set to last for three months. Judge Amit P. Mehta, an Obama appointee, will decide the case.

More:

The trial begins: DOJ is suing Google over search engine dominance

The Department of Justice has sued the tech giant for cornering more than 90 percent of the search engine market.

reason.com

Given that Google is such a huge asset to the NSA, it surprises me that the DOJ is going after them.

Casey Jones · Sep 12, 2023

pmbug said:
More:

The trial begins: DOJ is suing Google over search engine dominance

The Department of Justice has sued the tech giant for cornering more than 90 percent of the search engine market.

reason.com

Given that Google is such a huge asset to the NSA, it surprises me that the DOJ is going after them.

Window dressing.

Fine them a token fine for a minor violation, than preen around, proud that they've "shown that no one is above the law."

IMHO, that's more insulting than just letting them off.

searcher · Sep 16, 2023

Google to pay $155 million in settlements over location tracking

Google agreed to pay $155 million to settle claims by California and private plaintiffs that the search engine company misled consumers about how it tracks their locations, and used their data without consent.

www.reuters.com

Casey Jones · Sep 16, 2023

That's petty cash to Gurgle.

searcher · Sep 21, 2023

The Justice Department Controversy You Might Have Missed

An ambitious new antitrust playbook could reshape our economy — or completely backfire.

www.politico.com

searcher · Nov 9, 2023

Digital Market Act designations: the interoperability of Google Android

The European Commission has taken an intelligent first step in enabling competition to Google Android and Google Play Services

On 6 September, the European Commission issued decisions on designation of core platform services (CPS) under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act 1 . Google’s mobile operating system was designated as a CPS (European Commission, 2023), as expected given the large number of users it serves. Once designated, a CPS must comply with the DMA’s list of rules; the determination of exactly what is inside the CPS versus outside it can be consequential. The Commission has chosen a definition of the Google Android CPS that allows new device makers and app-store providers to capitalise on existing network effects, which will promote contestability.

Read the rest:

Digital Market Act designations: the interoperability of Google Android

The European Commission has taken an intelligent first step in enabling competition to Google Android and Google Play Services

www.bruegel.org

pmbug · Jan 2, 2024

It’s a big year for the oozing creep of corporate paternalism and ad-tracking technology online. Google and its subsidiary companies have tightened their grips on the throat of internet innovation, all while employing the now familiar tactic of marketing these things as beneficial for users. Here we’ll review the most significant changes this year, all emphasizing the point that browser privacy tools (like Privacy Badger) are more important than ever.
...

More:

Year In Review: Google’s Corporate Paternalism in The Browser

It’s a big year for the oozing creep of corporate paternalism and ad-tracking technology online. Google and its subsidiary companies have tightened their grips on the throat of internet innovation, all while employing the now familiar tactic of marketing these things as beneficial for users. Here...

www.eff.org

searcher · Feb 23, 2024

Pure EVIL: Google Creates RACIST AI

Feb 23, 2024

7:48

searcher · Apr 2, 2024

Google to destroy browsing data to settle consumer privacy lawsuit

April 1 (Reuters) - Google agreed to destroy billions of data records to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of people who thought they were browsing privately.

Terms of the settlement were filed on Monday in the Oakland, California federal court, and require approval by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs valued the accord at more than $5 billion, and as high as $7.8 billion. Google is paying no damages, but users may sue the company individually for damages.

The class action began in 2020, covering millions of Google users who used private browsing since June 1, 2016.

Users alleged that Google's analytics, cookies and apps let the Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab unit improperly track people who set Google's Chrome browser to "Incognito" mode and other browsers to "private" browsing mode.

They said this turned Google into an "unaccountable trove of information" by letting it learn about their friends, favorite foods, hobbies, shopping habits, and the "most intimate and potentially embarrassing things" they hunt for online.

More:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-destroy-browsing-data-settle-consumer-privacy-lawsuit-2024-04-01/

pmbug · Apr 2, 2024

Sounds good, but we're going to have to just trust them that they complied without keeping backups/cached copies?

Voodoo · Apr 2, 2024

They are getting pissier with youtube. Brave on anything older than Windows 10 crashes if you try to go to youtube. You can disable the ad blocking and then it will work.

Not to mention they crashed by computer, for the second time, when I mentioned silver breaking out in their scam site.

Casey Jones · Apr 2, 2024

Voodoo said:
They are getting pissier with youtube. Brave on anything older than Windows 10 crashes if you try to go to youtube. You can disable the ad blocking and then it will work.

Not to mention they crashed by computer, for the second time, when I mentioned silver breaking out in their scam site.

There is a workaround.

Get a second computer, and use it for nothing BUT Eww Toob.

And, you can load it with Linux. I have a 15-year-old Toshiba...completely obsolete...but it still can get the Tube of Eww, running Mint.

And it can get clogged up with all the ads that Gurgle likes. I can reload the OS daily, if they do. Favorites are exported to a flash drive.

Google "do no evil" meta thread

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Google to destroy browsing data to settle consumer privacy lawsuit