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Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

theintercept.com

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Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#271

Post by eitland »

bad_user wrote: post #247
rqs wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google employee did become more active on these issues which I think is progressive. Because the world is changing. The concern around privacy and censorship hasn't reached that level back in 2006 (Mainly because most westerners hasn't been effected by it, funny). The situation today is much different now. BUT, I don't think this will be a easy battle. Many people on Slashdot don't even believe Google will just sto…

> Many people on Slashdot Because Slashdot is a good source for unbiased opinions :-)

Seems it is a good source if you want to know what kind of biased opinions the Slashdot crowd has.

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#272

Post by _khau »

tlear wrote: post #222
sonnyblarney wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm definitely not missing your point, I'm disagreeing, fyi and your comment is shocking and repulsive. You are justifying, on cultural grounds, the mass incarceration of a minority because 'they could pose a potential social problem, even though they are not presently' which is abhorrent. Yes a 'cultural context' of Han ethnocentric racism and open bigotry, perhaps, but of course this isn't really justifying any…

Think of it as how Americans are completely tolerant of communists while people who lived under communist rule tend to be not so much. Americans have not experienced Cheka, Holodomor or Cultural Revolution. They also have not experienced Taiping rebellion or any of the other massive slaughters that happened in China over religion. Think 30 year war except it happened quite recently. Would I be ok now with now with gr…

> Think of it as how Americans are completely tolerant of communists

What?

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#273

Post by magpi3 »

fipple wrote: post #251
reimertz wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

It would completely set up my family and children for life. I’d get to quit my job and spend all day with my kids. If some people I don’t know get fucked over for that, whatever. And that kind of thinking is why the world is such a wretched place. But I can’t say I wouldn’t jump at the opportunity.

Relevant twilight zone

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button,_Button_(The_Twilight...

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#274

Post by dantheman »

jeron wrote: post #173
redisman wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad there are so many people like Manafort who are happy to take on that job for a quick buck. Sure people are being hunted down but check out the ostrich jacket!

for every company that refuses, there'll be one that will take it on for the right price...

and hopefully they'll be inept and it won't work.

and then they'll shop around some more.

it will cost them, more and more, and hopefully it will be deemed not worth it.

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#275

Post by analognoise »

pimmen wrote: post #258
fipple wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would completely set up my family and children for life. I’d get to quit my job and spend all day with my kids. If some people I don’t know get fucked over for that, whatever. And that kind of thinking is why the world is such a wretched place. But I can’t say I wouldn’t jump at the opportunity.

If one of your kids was disenfranchised by the government in an illegal way (maybe it was denied healthcare, education, protection of the law or something else that's fundamental) but because an engineer was paid 5-10 million you were powerless to stop it would you be as motivated to build something like that too after knowing what the damage feels like?

No, but that isn't the same hypothetical.

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#276

Post by tinus_hn »

jo2ie wrote: post #174
redisman wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad there are so many people like Manafort who are happy to take on that job for a quick buck. Sure people are being hunted down but check out the ostrich jacket!

Well the depressing part for me is I have seen good friends, extremely smart people who have no sane reason to be working on shady shit, fall down the rabbit hole. And I really haven't found effective ways to do anything about it... There are two issues at play 1. Not everyone is prepared mentally to turn down big payouts. I have seen this happening up and down the food chain. You only understand how hard this is aft…

It’s not just about the money. Some people can just be really persuasive and in reality most things are not really that black and white.

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#277

Post by chippy »

eitland wrote: post #270
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds similar to what Moxie experienced: https://moxie.org/blog/saudi-surveillance/

This quote is interesting in a historic context (WhatsApp uses Moxie's encryption now.): > More to the point, if you’re in Saudi Arabia (or really anywhere), it might be prudent to think about avoiding insecure communication tools like WhatsApp and Viber

Does this mean WhatsApp is okay to use now?

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#278

Post by chippy »

ionised wrote: post #268
fipple wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would completely set up my family and children for life. I’d get to quit my job and spend all day with my kids. If some people I don’t know get fucked over for that, whatever. And that kind of thinking is why the world is such a wretched place. But I can’t say I wouldn’t jump at the opportunity.

> It would completely set up my family and children for life. This isn't as good an excuse as you think it is. You might want to ask yourself if there is anything you believe in or care about beyond your own genetic code.

One could imagine him thinking about him taking the job as a sacrifice. He will sacrifice his morals and what he cares about for the security of his family and children. He knows that he will sell his soul and be crushed, but he also knows that his family will be okay.

It's one of the reasons suicide bombers blow themselves up too.

But, as in this case he will live and it ignores the lasting psychological damage on those around them - becoming malevolent will affect the people around, and not in a good way.

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#279

Post by ziont »

burtonator wrote: post #148

True story... I run a web crawling company named Datastreamer where we license data to social media monitoring firms. We're very white hat... Don't even like to mess around with grey hat areas as we don't want something like the Cambridge Analytica situation coming back to bite us in the ass. About 1.5 years ago we were contacted by a 3rd party firm which we eventually found out was a cut out for Saudi Arabia. The de…

good karma on you sir.

some companies/individuals would've jumped on it.

i dont know how engineers sleep at night who write spyware that track and ultimately contribute to people getting tortured to death, usually political dissidents.

also ppl designing new ways to kill humans. wtf is that shit? real contribution to humanity lol

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#280

Post by ethbro »

tinus_hn wrote: post #276
jo2ie wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the depressing part for me is I have seen good friends, extremely smart people who have no sane reason to be working on shady shit, fall down the rabbit hole. And I really haven't found effective ways to do anything about it... There are two issues at play 1. Not everyone is prepared mentally to turn down big payouts. I have seen this happening up and down the food chain. You only understand how hard this is aft…

It’s not just about the money. Some people can just be really persuasive and in reality most things are not really that black and white.

It's funny how things tend to get less black and white as more money is offered.
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