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Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

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21–30 of 440 posts

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#21

Good. To quote an old friend who worked for Google: "I'm worried that if the rest of America knew what we were actually doing here they would literally come here and kill us..."

As a Googler, that's a sentiment I have never heard expressed, nor have I felt anything even remotely like it myself. My guess would be that most people would feel a lot better about the company if they could see how the sausage gets made. At least, judging by the reactions of my family members when they ask me concerned questions and I explain how things work, that's what would happen.

That being said, it will be interesting to see what comes out of this investigation. I'm curious to know what practices they are going to zero in on. No company should be immune to the law.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#22
post #3

If true, this will be a landmark case and should scare FB and Amazon as well. Personally, I think this is a good thing and it's past time for the government to at least set some boundaries, but there's no telling how it will play out with the current administration and amount of lobbying dollars flying around.

Why would this have any relevance to FB and Amazon? I realize a lot of people on HN don't like what these companies are doing with their data, but this lawsuit is not about privacy at all so I don't see how it relates to those 2 companies.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#24
post #22
post #3

If true, this will be a landmark case and should scare FB and Amazon as well. Personally, I think this is a good thing and it's past time for the government to at least set some boundaries, but there's no telling how it will play out with the current administration and amount of lobbying dollars flying around.

Why would this have any relevance to FB and Amazon? I realize a lot of people on HN don't like what these companies are doing with their data, but this lawsuit is not about privacy at all so I don't see how it relates to those 2 companies.

All you need to do is look at their respective stock price histories to see how they are related.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#25
post #22
post #3

If true, this will be a landmark case and should scare FB and Amazon as well. Personally, I think this is a good thing and it's past time for the government to at least set some boundaries, but there's no telling how it will play out with the current administration and amount of lobbying dollars flying around.

Why would this have any relevance to FB and Amazon? I realize a lot of people on HN don't like what these companies are doing with their data, but this lawsuit is not about privacy at all so I don't see how it relates to those 2 companies.

Both of these companies are very good at extinguishing competition.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#26
post #20

Good. To quote an old friend who worked for Google: "I'm worried that if the rest of America knew what we were actually doing here they would literally come here and kill us..."

If he or she worked for Google why did they not bother exposing them when he got out. They could do it anonymously through a media outlet in the UK like the Guardian. I mean I would guess it's pretty much yeah we have everything you have ever typed into Android, almost every site you have visited, a detailed dossier of your porn habits, all your Google Home conversations... All your e-mails. List of your friends. You…

That is not a likely scenario. There are so many ways through which purposeful anti-competitive behavior masked as accident would get exposed for what it is that it wouldn't work in practice (just look at how many internal posts got leaked around Demore).

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#28
post #22
post #3

If true, this will be a landmark case and should scare FB and Amazon as well. Personally, I think this is a good thing and it's past time for the government to at least set some boundaries, but there's no telling how it will play out with the current administration and amount of lobbying dollars flying around.

Why would this have any relevance to FB and Amazon? I realize a lot of people on HN don't like what these companies are doing with their data, but this lawsuit is not about privacy at all so I don't see how it relates to those 2 companies.

Ant-competitive practices? Facebook buying up any and all rivals like WhatsApp and Instagram? They are a juggernaut and shouldn’t be able to own all social media.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#29
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would this have any relevance to FB and Amazon? I realize a lot of people on HN don't like what these companies are doing with their data, but this lawsuit is not about privacy at all so I don't see how it relates to those 2 companies.

Ant-competitive practices? Facebook buying up any and all rivals like WhatsApp and Instagram? They are a juggernaut and shouldn’t be able to own all social media.

They also tried to buy Snapchat but their bid was rejected.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#30
As an ex-Googler: good. Google has done a lot of good in the past, and that continues today, but it's pretty clear nobody should have as much control over "making information universally accessible and useful" as Google does. Especially after they give up any pretense of "don't be evil".

I also very much hope FB is next.

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