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The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

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Re: The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

#141

Post by slashdev »

dindobre wrote: post #105
roenxi wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reasonable argument that, as a minor nobody, we should rather use services from hostile countries. It isn't feasible for Russia to to compel someone in an English-speaking country to do something unpleasant. That is a lot more than can be said for the local police or politicians. Russian corruption doesn't generally touch Western governments - the atmosphere is too hostile to it.

>Russian corruption doesn't generally touch Western governments No offense but the fact that someone on HN could get to this conclusion is rather shocking to me. Western Europe has plenty of russian corruption and I'm afraid the ongoing war has unearthed only a fraction of it.

For example?

Re: The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

#142

Post by slashdev »

Toutouxc wrote: post #126
roenxi wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reasonable argument that, as a minor nobody, we should rather use services from hostile countries. It isn't feasible for Russia to to compel someone in an English-speaking country to do something unpleasant. That is a lot more than can be said for the local police or politicians. Russian corruption doesn't generally touch Western governments - the atmosphere is too hostile to it.

Many Jews got killed in the 40s because they'd registered themselves as Jews many years back, way before Hitler was a thing. A lot of Ukrainians suddenly found themselves on Russian [claimed] soil and under Russian jurisdiction just a few months ago. There are certain nations before which I'm not going to incriminate myself, out of precaution, Russia and China among them.

If my country suddenly becomes Russian or China occupied territory, them having my search history is very far down my list of worries.

Re: The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

#143

Post by avgcorrection »

0xDEF wrote: post #138
avgcorrection wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kazakhstani (born in Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) ethnic Russian stops mentioning “Russia” in his biography during a period of increased Russophobia. More news at eight?

>increased Russophobia Where in the world is there any "Russophobia"? The far-right in the West and around the world loves Russia and Russians.

The far right has (predictably, misguidedly) become apparent Russophiles in reaction to the mainstream Russophobia (the “own the libs” playbook).

I don't think that's that significant. But it does prove my point.

Re: The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

#144

Post by throw-ru-938 »

slashdev wrote: post #141
dindobre wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Russian corruption doesn't generally touch Western governments No offense but the fact that someone on HN could get to this conclusion is rather shocking to me. Western Europe has plenty of russian corruption and I'm afraid the ongoing war has unearthed only a fraction of it.

For example?

There's probably no hard proof, but Russia is allegedly funding far-right movements like AfD and whatever Le Pen's party in France is now called. Also, see the career of Gerhard Schroeder, first German chancellor and then a top Gazprom official.

Re: The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

#145

Post by NelsonMinar »

throw-ru-938 wrote: post #17

Context: Yandex is in the news right now because a couple of days ago its cofounder and former CEO Arkady Volozh was caught trying to hide his Russian past [0], and today he finally issued a public statement condemning the war [1], almost 1.5 years after the full-scale invasion began. [0] https://kz.kursiv.media/en/2023-08-07/co-founder-of-yandex-e... [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-yandex-volozh..…

I'm not sure if that's context or just coincidence. Confiant has been workingon this analysis for 7 months now.

Re: The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

#146

Post by mcpackieh »

throw-ru-938 wrote: post #128
londons_explore wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> today he finally issued a public statement condemning the war Would you issue such a statement in his position? Think carefully. If you don't, you will probably have twitter brigades trying to smear your name. If you do, your family back home might be at risk, and you will probably never be able to visit them again. Personally, I cannot in good faith demand anyone condemn the war, if to do so, they are putting fami…

His family has left Russia back in 2014.

Doesn't really mean they're safe, does it? A whole lot of ex-Russians in other countries have been killed under suspicious circumstances.

Re: The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

#147

Post by slashdev »

throw-ru-938 wrote: post #128
londons_explore wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> today he finally issued a public statement condemning the war Would you issue such a statement in his position? Think carefully. If you don't, you will probably have twitter brigades trying to smear your name. If you do, your family back home might be at risk, and you will probably never be able to visit them again. Personally, I cannot in good faith demand anyone condemn the war, if to do so, they are putting fami…

His family has left Russia back in 2014.

There’s always someone who stayed. It doesn’t have to be the very closest part of your family.

Re: The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

#148

Post by NelsonMinar »

Folks are focussing on the Russian part of this. But Yandex just happens to be the one whose source code got analyzed; you can safely substitute "Google" or "Facebook" or any of the other various behavior advertising companies here. They're all doing similar things and it's terrific to have such a detailed analysis of how it works.

Wired has a good summary if you want something more like a mainstream press article: https://www.wired.com/story/yandex-leaks-crypta-ads/

Re: The Yandex leak: How a Russian search giant uses consumer data

#150

Post by tri5635hhfgvv5r »

Barrin92 wrote: post #91
kypro wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote a comment a few years back how I was using Yandex quite a bit at the time because there are things I'm simply unable to find on Google – sites like sci-hub for example. Today though I find myself using it daily. The results are far from perfect, but I've never suspected them to be randomly hiding or suppressing search results like many of the popular Western alternatives. I don't use image search much, but ye…

>but I've never suspected them to be randomly hiding or suppressing search results the word 'random' must be doing a lot of work in that sentence given that they are subject to Roskomnadzor's regulations and are thus forced not just arbitrarily but systematically censor content: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/02/01/a-window-into-yandex...

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