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Google's campaign for a free and open internet

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31–40 of 64 posts

Re: Google's campaign for a free and open internet

#31
Who actually sees these pages on Google? Seriously, who is the intended audience? I'm not knocking the page or the messages, I just don't understand the target? Do people browse Google? I see this stuff only via HN. I'm curious how others find it.

Re: Google's campaign for a free and open internet

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? Is Google requiring all your connections to go through their servers? Are they hiding some important information from you, maybe Ghostery is not showing up in your search results? Perhaps they provide a browser that you have to use in which you cannot install Adblock, or stop it from accepting third party cookies?

You may recall Google being fined $22.5 million for sneakily bypassing Safari's privacy settings earlier this year. But more to the point is Google's lobbying. Google spends far more on lobbying than do Apple, Facebook, or Microsoft. Google is required to report which issues they lobbied on, but not whether they are for or against proposed legislation. In some cases we can speculate. Google reports high spending on t…

That sort of speculation is not productive. We could just as easily speculate that Google would prefer not to censor in foreign countries and is advocating the legislation to provide them an excuse to foreign governments for their refusal to censor, and to prevent their competitors from gaining an advantage in such countries by capitulating to censorship demands and thereby putting unwanted pressure on Google to do the same.

Re: Google's campaign for a free and open internet

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? Is Google requiring all your connections to go through their servers? Are they hiding some important information from you, maybe Ghostery is not showing up in your search results? Perhaps they provide a browser that you have to use in which you cannot install Adblock, or stop it from accepting third party cookies?

You may recall Google being fined $22.5 million for sneakily bypassing Safari's privacy settings earlier this year. But more to the point is Google's lobbying. Google spends far more on lobbying than do Apple, Facebook, or Microsoft. Google is required to report which issues they lobbied on, but not whether they are for or against proposed legislation. In some cases we can speculate. Google reports high spending on t…

Google was fined for violating its consent order with the FTC (established after the Buzz fiasco) in which it agreed to not lie to consumers about the extent to which they can opt out of Google's tracking.

The fine here was for lying to Safari users (Google told them they didn't need to opt out, because they couldn't be tracked, when in fact the company was tracking them).

The $22.5 million fine was _not_ for the covert tracking itself.

Re: Google's campaign for a free and open internet

#35
Google is a weapon used by the US government to establish the domination and seize control over citizens access to information. Would Google really care about the open Internet, it'd license itself with GNU Public license long time ago. This call is hypocrisy. It is like a bank which collected all the gold is calling to the mob to rob some other bank where some other gold is. Once the other bank is robbed and cease to exist, the mob will inevitably bring the gold back to the initiator of the robbery. True freedom in the Internet is in hands of its users already. They just don't want it and give their own power to things like Google, allowing a costly layer between their needs and fulfilment. What can you do about it is another question.

Re: Google's campaign for a free and open internet

#37

Google is a weapon used by the US government to establish the domination and seize control over citizens access to information. Would Google really care about the open Internet, it'd license itself with GNU Public license long time ago. This call is hypocrisy. It is like a bank which collected all the gold is calling to the mob to rob some other bank where some other gold is. Once the other bank is robbed and cease t…

> Would Google really care about the open Internet, it'd license itself with GNU Public license long time ago

I do not have a strong idea of why you think Google using the gnu licence would be strong stride in making the internet more open. What is the top technology they should GNU licence and what is the top impact it would have in opening up the internet?

Re: Google's campaign for a free and open internet

#38
post #31

Who actually sees these pages on Google? Seriously, who is the intended audience? I'm not knocking the page or the messages, I just don't understand the target? Do people browse Google? I see this stuff only via HN. I'm curious how others find it.

I got an email directly from google since I signed up from them to receive such information. I believe they collected email addresses when it was unsure weather SOPA would pass.

Re: Google's campaign for a free and open internet

#39

Signed up, power to the free people.

You just gave a little more power to Google.

Possibly, but this is a matter of who you trust more. Dare I say many people don't quite trust governments on doing the "right thing" for the Internet.

Re: Google's campaign for a free and open internet

#40
post #11

It should have a * at the end of the statement that reads: * As long as Google can track you.

This is what it is written:

  A free and open world depends on a free and open web.
This is what I read:

  Google's business depends on a free and open web.
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