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Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

nytimes.com

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Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#421

Post by int_19h »

belorn wrote: post #372
afsina wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That term is an oxymoron.

This will just end up being a discussion about definitions, but lets dip into it. We can define a socialism government to be one that have the goal of having social ownership and democratic control of the means of production. We can define a free market to be one in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority. Thus a Free Ma…

What do you mean by "social ownership"?

The traditional definition of socialism is that it has public ownership of the means of production (i.e. shared by society as a whole). What you describe wouldn't achieve that, because, even with market regulations that prevent monopolization, means of production would still be privately owned - there'd just be more such private owners. But the basics of private ownership of the means of production - the ability to extract economic rent from them - wouldn't change, and that basic ability is what defines capitalism.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#422

Post by maaaats »

tjr225 wrote: post #419
bagacrap wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way are you locked into maps? Are you using that phrase to mean you're unable to switch or just that you like the product too much to switch?

I have ditched google almost entirely. The only two google services I use are search (via duckduckgo bang encrypted searches) and maps. Honestly...OpenStreetMap and Apple Maps simply do not compare. It is very hard to not use Google Maps. I also use Waze but it is my understanding that the two are of the same. Even so, I prefer to use Google Maps.

Tried Here maps?

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#423

Post by tycho01 »

abawany wrote: post #340
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually found FastMail wholly superior to Gmail, HERE Maps refreshingly good at working without a data connection, which is a lifesaver while traveling, and I use Sandstorm.io over Drive, which is capable of a lot more as well. I started with an attempt to leave Google products for political/moral reasons and ended up finding superior products on the way.

Same (ish) here. I switched to Runbox and also use HERE Maps. Very happy so far.

Note, Here Maps doesn't seem Asia proof yet, just seems to use English everywhere.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#424

Post by tomjakubowski »

creaghpatr wrote: post #121
blfr wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this "Think Tank" is literally a propaganda office Is that really different from any other think tank or the NYT itself?

NYT's David Brooks is on their board of directors so not really. Might want to see the other members as well. https://www.newamerica.org/board/

I rarely hear the NYT described as sharing the political biases of David Brooks, their employer-employee relationship notwithstanding. Brooks presumably has some influence on New America with that position, so I'm curious how this squares with microcolonel's assessment.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#425

Post by tristram_shandy »

turk183 wrote: post #39

I just spent the better part of a week getting myself off of GMail. I'm still using Chrome at work for development, but have Brave browser for personal use now. I'm using DuckDuckGo for searches. I have an iPhone, but honestly, I don't trust Apple to not act like total dumbasses and so I am now lamenting the consolidation in the smart phone space. Google and these other companies are blowing themselves up over idioti…

There's a lot of us, apparently, who independently came to the same conclusion at the same time. My YouTube account is deleted, my Google+ page is deleted, my emails are wiped.

There's an anti-trust suit against Google looming. The only possible challenge to Google's power is nation states; not individuals, not startups, and not even other large tech firms. Like any corporate entity (i.e. a sociopath), they'll inevitably start using their influence on the public to avoid any kind of regulation or anti-trust legislation. Therefore it's certain that the total politicization of Google is imminent.

There's an impending and complete certainty Google will begin: subtle manipulation of news feeds, outright censorship of opposing viewpoints, backdoor deals with politicians in pay-for-play schemes, insincere attempts to integrate Google services with the state (would you like to ride the Google self driving bus to work for free?)... and most ominously, given their massive ability to psychologically profile everyone on the planet (to the point of being able to infer IQ, political opinions, emotional tendencies, income, social profile) -- targeted, tailored manipulation of the human mind to suit Google's ends.

In fact they've started all of the above.

I switched to Protonmail (paid account). Then I started going through my password vaults and removing or modifying every account that had been tied to a Gmail address. Then I sold my new OnePlus 5 because just thinking about supporting Google keeps me up at night, now... and I had that Gmail account since 2004. It's good to know that I'm not the only one.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#426

Post by jondubois »

redm wrote: post #93

The key point of the article is this: “Google is very aggressive in throwing its money around Washington and Brussels, and then pulling the strings,” Mr. Lynn said. “People are so afraid of Google now.” Honestly, the only thing shocking about any of this is that people thought Google was "special". The reality is, when its revenues are threatened, it's going to reach like any other corporation, which it should. Googl…

I like most Google products but I think that Gmail is the wost email client that was ever created. The default way in which it groups emails is terrible:

1. They have three tabs for emails, so to check if I have any new emails, I literally have to click through 3 different tabs.

2. When I have long email threads, new emails get lost under the clutter instead of showing up at the top of my inbox like a rational human being would expect.

3. When I actually click to open an email thread; 99% of the stuff is collapsed and I keep having to expand it out which is really annoying.

With a lot of modern web-based email clients, I always feel like the company is trying to hide my own emails from me which is creepy - That's why I like the simplest layout possible. New emails should always appear at the top and highlighted as unread.

When Marissa Mayer came to Yahoo, she changed the Yahoo email web client so that it would group emails in the Google way. I lost faith in humanity that day. I almost quit the service but thankfully at least they had a setting which allowed me to revert back to the correct way.

Maybe Gmail has a setting to display emails correctly (like Yahoo) but I haven't heard about it.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#427

Post by gaius »

gaius wrote: post #306
kuschku wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to remember, though, that these aren’t small national governments. If Google really pissed off the EU, or US, they could simply force all banks to freeze Google’s assets, and seize them. This has worked in the past, and can be used again.

They aren't being a genuine, credible anti-corporate voice either. These are nation states. They can start arresting Google's employees too. "Officer of the company" is not just an empty phrase.

What happened here? My original comment about Trump is gone and replaced with the body of another comment I made.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#428

Post by cromwellian »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #420
intended wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the key reason. Its the market at work - at some point the marginal advantage of investing even a little in lobbying results in more X, (where X can be anything from power to profit). And in a competitive scenario, SOMEONE will do it. Not to mention Even a unhappy incumbent can initiate a lobbying strategy. People in the comments seem to focus a lot on google itself, but this is the way the game is played. It…

> People in the comments seem to focus a lot on google itself, but this is the way the game is played. Just because something is commonly done does not mean that behavior is right. A reason this post is so popular is because people are becoming increasingly aware of the power & capital concentration occurring in this country. Google has for years successfully gave an image of a company capable of rising above the typ…

The world isn't black and white. The fact that large companies have to engage in lobbying because they are either threatened into it by unscrupulous politicians, or they are attacked by their competition by using the state for regulatory capture, doesn't make them all the same.

The problem that technolibertarians/utopians have long had was that they imagined cyberspace as a completely separate dimension, that would not be sullied by the ordinary concerns of politics and buying influence. And perhaps for a short time, when the internet and web was new, and politicians mostly ignored it, there was good reason to believe you wouldn't have to worry about it, but after the 90s when the Web/Net was mainstreamed, with billions of people on it, and trillions in money up for grabs, the idea that the normal corrupt politician process would leave its participants alone is naive.

I mean, take net neutrality. Verizon, Comcast, and the ISPs have clearly won. They've got their guy as head of the FCC. The fossil fuel industry has won, they've got their guys running the show now.

Would you call sustainable energy companies lobbying congress and buying politicians "same old typical sociopathic behavior", it would you recognize that this is how the game is played, and they've go to fight to prevent the government from distorting the market and letting fossil fuel companies crush them.

I'm not a libertarian, but one of the reasons libertarians don't like government regulation is that if you want to "get money out of politics" it is literally impossible as long as small investments can yield huge benefits via regulatory capture.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#429

Post by ludjer »

gaius wrote: post #334
kromem wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Go ahead and avoid anything hosted on or using AWS. Might be a bit difficult, and you may reconsider Amazon's scale relative to Google.

A fair point but I've not seen even a hint that Amazon themselves are tracking me across AWS hosted services. Do you have any evidence or links?

They wont need to add cookies or anything like that. They can track you just by parsing the connection logs on their routers and switches. Also every thing that is billable is logged. So technically they are already tracking and recording every access across their network. It is impossible to verify if they actually do this without anyone leaking information that worked on the system.
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