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Google: Open Letter to Australians

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Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#271

Post by knorker »

chris_wot wrote: post #262
knorker wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To hell with "them"? Are you saying Australians should cut off their nose to spite their face? I think you missed the whole point of this letter. Let me clarify: "Oi mate, the government wants to force us to fuck you royally. We don't want to. Please help stop yourself getting fucked. Cheers, cunt."

And here is another Australian who says "Oi mate, Google don't want to pay taxes for profits they made in Australia. They don't want to invest in schools, universities, infrastructure or anything else through reasonable taxation. Google are fucking over Australians".

But it's orthogonal.

It's like you're saying you want to be fucked by both Google and the government.

Why do two wrongs make a right, to you? Again: cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#272

Post by xiphias2 »

senectus1 wrote: post #248
dannyw wrote: post #127

Australian here. Fuck News Corp, one of the most corrupt entities in Australia that directly collude and interfere with our elections for the benefit of themselves and Big Coal. I hope Google don’t fuck around.

lol Australian here as well: Thats like saying "Go Darth Vader! I can forgive the fact you slaughtered hundreds of Jedi and children, because you're way more redeemable than the emperor..." Both orgs are to a degree, evil. why do we have to settle on which evil we support?

> Both orgs are to a degree, evil. why do we have to settle on which evil we support?

Because the decision has a huge effect on our lives. I already see hailstorms in the summer where I live, so I'm definately in the renewables camp. It's still easier to hide from Google than hiding from the weather changes that affect me even when I'm inside my comfortable apartment.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#273

Post by suizi »

einpoklum wrote: post #236
discordance wrote: post #119

Google evil etc etc aside, they have been decent custodians of their users data. I don't really want to trust Google, but they behave much better than the Australian government, who recently admitted they spy on their citizens [0], can coerce citizens and companies to install backdoors into their companies software [1]. I trust Murdoch less than the government, and much much less than Google. Remember when Murdoch in…

> but they behave much better than the Australian government, who recently admitted they spy on their citizens [0], can coerce citizens and companies to install backdoors into their companies software [1]. But Google has exactly this. First, it collects and saves all its users' data, and can build very detailed profiles of probably each of us. Second, and perhaps more importantly, all the information going through th…

Murdoch's investigators illegally wiretapped anyone they could to get a scoop, including a murdered child. The process of doing so made it look like she was reading the messages and still alive.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#274

Post by arathis »

foxylad wrote: post #180
altindag wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting. it seems to me that if Google really wanted to influence Australian public opinion, they have far more sophisticated ways to go about it than this clumsy attempt at PSA outreach slash fear mongering. It's almost as if they need to be seen to be taking some responses to the media payment legislation but they don't really care. That's what's interesting to me. I wonder why they would not care. perhaps beca…

Google's entire business depends on being squeaky clean. If they ever got caught doing "sophisticated" opinion influencing, they'd lose half their value overnight as customers switched to alternatives. And then every democratic government would join in with a serious kicking, given their elections are so vulnerable to said influencing. I think Facebook sails very close to the wind here, but my impression is that Goog…

Switched to who? Bing?

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#275

Post by kelnos »

I imagine there's going to be a very strong knee-jerk anti-Google reaction here, but let's stop and think about the law itself. If it actually does what this open letter says it does, then it's a bad law, plain and simple, and we should support and applaud efforts -- even Google's -- to inform the public with the hope of changing things.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#276

Post by doctor_eval »

sthnblllII wrote: post #168
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In regards to parent commenters [0] link, this is the story that got a journalist's home raided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) because she received leaked information (that turned out to be 100% correct) that the Department for Home Affairs was planning to allow the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to spy on Australian citizens. Directly quoting from the linked article: ASD powers have been a source of co…

> this seems to be the Government that the Australian people want. I can assure you it’s not. The problem with Republics is that “one man one vote” does not translate into the majority getting what it wants. The loudest and most well organized political forces will get their way, even ones small in number or popular support. State security services have a long history of involvement in politics and media in the Anglo…

It’s one remotely 1 man 1 vote: the Greens get the same number of votes as the Nationals but have 10% of the representation in the house.

Let me know when we have a Greens deputy PM.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#277

Post by berkes »

discordance wrote: post #119

Google evil etc etc aside, they have been decent custodians of their users data. I don't really want to trust Google, but they behave much better than the Australian government, who recently admitted they spy on their citizens [0], can coerce citizens and companies to install backdoors into their companies software [1]. I trust Murdoch less than the government, and much much less than Google. Remember when Murdoch in…

> I don't really want to trust Google, but they behave much better than the Australian government,

If you ignore who does it worst in pracice, the most important argument becomes apparent:

The Austrialian government is a democratically assigned entity; one that has (or should have?) checks and balances in place; one that is closely monitored as your various references prove.

Google, a foreign private entity has no such checks and balances in place. We don't vote in general elections for the new CEO of Google, we don't elect representatives into the board, and we cannot lean on transparancy laws to look into the kitchen at that private entity.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#278

Post by kqvamxurcagg »

discordance wrote: post #119

Google evil etc etc aside, they have been decent custodians of their users data. I don't really want to trust Google, but they behave much better than the Australian government, who recently admitted they spy on their citizens [0], can coerce citizens and companies to install backdoors into their companies software [1]. I trust Murdoch less than the government, and much much less than Google. Remember when Murdoch in…

I trust Google way less. They want to take content from publishers and monetise it while giving very little back resulting in an unsustainable media model. Google does the equivalent of wiretapping every day then sells data to advertisers, far more lucrative than anything News Corp has ever done.

I don't especially like News Corp but their media properties are key to providing an alternative view to liberal news coverage across English speaking countries. In any case the solution to all of this is breaking Google up into its component parts and making them pay tax.

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#279

Post by kyrra »

jojobas wrote: post #178
kyrra wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(googler, opinion is my own) My understanding is that Google is locally incorporated in australia, as you can see on this page[0], at least for Ads, likely other businesses. If you select Australia on there you will see Ads payments are made to "Google Australia Pty Limited". [0] https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375370?hl=en

Google Australia Pty Ltd acts as an agent for Google Asia Pacific registered in Singapore. The profits are routed as licensing costs around the world to end up in this or that low tax jurisdiction.

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Found this which gave more context.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-01/google-facebook-make-...

Re: Google: Open Letter to Australians

#280

Post by b0tch7 »

ehnto wrote: post #162
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In regards to parent commenters [0] link, this is the story that got a journalist's home raided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) because she received leaked information (that turned out to be 100% correct) that the Department for Home Affairs was planning to allow the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to spy on Australian citizens. Directly quoting from the linked article: ASD powers have been a source of co…

What the Australian government does well is control information and controversy. The government is a quiet achiever in that regard. Australians have been comfortable for a while, and are generally disengaged from politics. Most Australians I know are more aware of American politics than their own.

> Most Australians I know are more aware of American politics than their own

Gosh this is so true. My sister and I are Americans living in Australia, she recently posted celebrating Kamala being named Biden's VP and got 20+ negative/derogatory DMs from aussie men in her network. I can't believe they care so much.

Meanwhile, you rarely read much about Australian politics in social media besides satire (Batoota Advocate, etc).

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