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Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

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Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Yahoo! "fighting back" apparently was apart of the smoke and mirrors, since apparently they have no choice what so ever except to bend over and take it from the surveillance state? > Doing otherwise can lead to the labeling of individuals as national security threats or even potential terrorists, after which all gloves are off. Are you suggesting that if in the event of a CEO or shareholders of multinational corpo…

"they have no choice what so ever except to bend over and take it from the surveillance state?" Yep. I guarantee that as well as taking the process through the courts, they have also been obeying the existing law. They have no choice. "Are you suggesting that if in the event of a CEO or shareholders of multinational corporations deciding not to comply with secret orders then they will be labeled by the state to the p…

>Yep. I guarantee that as well as taking the process through the courts, they have also been obeying the existing law. They have no choice.

True, but by submitting to the will of the court (system), they effectively made their choice. They could have made an public announcement of such secret order and dealt with the legal repercussions, Which in my eyes, would have be more of a blow to the surveillance state (than some golden star given by EFF that they can put on their fridge, while still being complicit with the state) and set a precedent for other companies to do the same…

>or child molesters, or rapists, or tax fraudsters, or anything that can be found and has the smallest chance of sticking. There is a pretty good history of this, including Assange, and the CEO of some telco whose name I forget. It is a pretty standard way for Intelligence departmentsto get what they want, see the history of intelligence companies.

Some would call this getting into tinfoil hat territory, but what you state what has happened is more palpable to the public than to declare such individuals, that so many people look up to, as terrorists (effectively putting them in the same light as those who the state alleges perpetrated the attacks on 9/11 that justifies the ongoing combat in countries that we are not at war with and the death of thousands of civilians caught in the cross-hairs [of whom of which is has been documented that the state has given weapons, aid and intel to on multiple occasions]).

>The NSA have access to all our communications, finding something to use as blackmail isn't going to be hard.

But of course the information the NSA collects, that is outsourced to the BAH's (which apparently any sysadmin can get their hands onto :P) who are owned by the Carlyle's wouldn't dare blackmail their portfolio company CEO's or fellow shareholders in order to not damage the potential profits of their companies… ;)

>we honestly do. The actions of the state are moving beyond the common understanding of the social contract.

Agreed… but somehow, this is the elephant in the room for many people…

Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#52
post #39

Only in 2005, Yahoo helped the Chinese regime prosecute a journalist. That wasn't the only time that happened, either. (Source: NYT - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/business/worldbusiness/07i... )

I'm tired of this example. AFAIR, Yahoo got a valid court order to turn over information, and they complied because they had a presence there. No other company: not Google, not Microsoft, not AOL would have done anything different.

Twitter might have, if they had a presence.

They had this sort of issue in France a while back didn't they?

Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#53
post #21
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Marissa has recently did a lot of changes to improve Yahoo.

She seems to be good at getting nerds talking about Yahoo. I don't think I was ever in the target market for any of their products, and I almost forgot the company existed, until the recent controversy about the ban on remote working.

Uh what do you have against remote working that you're switching to Yahoo just cause they banned it?

Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#54
post #16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Marissa has recently did a lot of changes to improve Yahoo.

Such as?

For what it's worth, their iOS weather app is absolutely fantastic and I believe is now being aped or outright used by Apple in iOS7.

Small things, but it is a very nice user experience if what you're after is the weather.

Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#55
post #21
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Marissa has recently did a lot of changes to improve Yahoo.

She seems to be good at getting nerds talking about Yahoo. I don't think I was ever in the target market for any of their products, and I almost forgot the company existed, until the recent controversy about the ban on remote working.

Even if you don't like their products, almost everyone is in the target market for one of their products. Mail, News, Groups, etc...

Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#56
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt you can "join" PRISM. You're forced in.

"forced in" meaning that in order to continue to conduct business as is without trying to circumvent in the name of their users interests, they chose to align their interests with the surveillance state in order to minimize any potential short term corporate hardships. It kind of reminds me of how a certain president received a nobel peace prize yet the actions conducted under his policies (or rule) are in contradict…

There's a huge difference between tail-waggingly complying with a government request, and fighting back with every method available until you are defeated. Many tech companies didn't even raise "arms" against the NSA invasion -- they in fact built systems to make the NSA's surveillance easier than they even needed to.

In a society governed by laws, and enforced with guns, you don't have a choice about complying with laws, unless you want to be hauled off and put in a dank cell (some admirable dissidents do that, but nobody should expect that level of commitment from their email provider).

Let's not mix this up with Obama's Nobel Prize. I don't think anyone outside the Nobel Committee, including even Michelle Obama, thought it was an appropriate selection at the time or today.

Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#57
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Marissa has recently did a lot of changes to improve Yahoo.

This was 6 years back. When probably Terry Semel or Jerry Yang were at Yahoo!

Makes you wonder about some of Microsoft's undisclosed intentions when Yahoo! was a suitor[1] given what happened when/after Skype[2] entered Microsoft's fold. Though the credible timeline[3] given suggests that Yahoo! may have already been forced to capitulate.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Yahoo!#Acquisition_a...

[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-co...

[3] http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/07/microsoft-has-fed-p...

Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#58
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She seems to be good at getting nerds talking about Yahoo. I don't think I was ever in the target market for any of their products, and I almost forgot the company existed, until the recent controversy about the ban on remote working.

Uh what do you have against remote working that you're switching to Yahoo just cause they banned it?

I understood that to mean he'd forgotten about the company until the remote-working ban controversy brought it back into the spotlight, not that he's boycotting Yahoo on the basis of its remote-working policy

Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#59
post #54
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such as?

For what it's worth, their iOS weather app is absolutely fantastic and I believe is now being aped or outright used by Apple in iOS7. Small things, but it is a very nice user experience if what you're after is the weather.

Sportacular for iOS is also great. Provides no-nonsense scores and news for almost every sport (I mainly follow basketball, tennis and soccer, though). It is a much better interface than what Yahoo's own web equivalent (sports.yahoo.com) has become.

Re: Yahoo's Fight for its Users Earns the Company Special Recognition by EFF

#60
If only they can clean their Y!Mail and make messenger XMPP happy and can give other (clean) apps like Calendar/Taks/Notes (free or for a decent fee) etc. I can switch but somehow, I know this is not good, user friendliness wins over worry for my own privacy. May be because the intuitiveness of an app or the absence of it is sth I've to deal with daily. Or maybe not, it's just simple laziness and dangerous indifference.
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