Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#391

Post by dsswh » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 8:28 PM UTC

flyer428 wrote: post #326

googthrwy_ wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how the SWE’s and other senior people in this thread feel about working for a company that many now consider scum. All their excuses and retorts can honestly take a hike: It is my honest opinion that if you still work for Google you’re selling us all out. Googler here, I understand why you may think Google is evil now and I'm not going to say they are a perfect company. But I think you should consider that i…

If it wasn't for ad revenue, do you think you would be able to work on these things that people like and are supposed improvements to people's lives? That there would be funding for such work? Your position is arguably worse than selling out: Others do the dirty work – 'Ads or various "evil" things' – so you can do the nice stuff and claim a clean conscience.

It's a valid point, but to be completely honest, the same point applies to all the rich countries. The only reason we can have the life style we have, i.e. drive a car that costs only 20k, wear clothes that cost 20 usd, have a smartphone for 150 usd and oay for gas only 3 usd us because if slave labor in third world countries and the American military forces make sure to preserve this state of things. Otherwise we'd pay 40 usd for gas, 200k for Mazda 3, 5000 usd for a smartphone and 50 usd for a coffee.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#392

Post by prepend » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 8:40 PM UTC

pimterry wrote: post #301

prepend wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving countries is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. The US is one of the easiest countries to immigrate to and we only have 14.4% of our population having changes countries (coming in at least) [0]. This LinkedIn article citing BLS stats says the average person will have 12-15 jobs in their lifetime [1]. So I don’t think it’s very comparable to say “you can just change countries.” The vast majority of p…

> The US is one of the easiest countries to immigrate to and we only have 14.4% of our population having changes countries Just to follow this tangent briefly - I'd be surprised if that first statement is true by most definitions (I'd almost say the opposite), and the implication that 14.4% of the population is therefore a high level certainly isn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_d... has…

I think it’s important to compare citizens rather than residents because that is a closer number to people who have immigrated. Many of the countries you site have really high foreign-born residents because of guest workers. I suspect these workers would love to stay and become citizens but that’s not possible in Switzerland or Qatar.

That being said, I’m sure there are other countries higher than the US, but 15% is pretty high and certainly amongst the highest. I tried finding a good list that ranked countries but couldn’t easily find an apples to apples comparison like the US’ BLS. But I like your link because it’s helpful for comparison. I wish I had found it.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#393

Post by ganeshkrishnan » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 9:07 PM UTC

pimterry wrote: post #310

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia does NOT have real highest percentage of foreign born and is a very hard country to immigrate to. Their foreign born are mostly from neighbors NZ and UK.

It's not the highest by a long shot, and their process certainly isn't easy (and I agree biased to friendly English-speaking nations), but 33% of the population is still a lot more than the US. Or do you mean that that number isn't correct somehow? It's based on a UN report, but I have no idea where their data comes from.

Out of 33% majority of them are from UK and NZ. I think around 90% of them.

Both of them can stay as long as they want in Australia but they are always counted as "foreign born/citizens"

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#394

Post by sockpuppet999 » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 10:02 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #108

sockpuppet999 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not how the sausage is made that matters. The sausage is making ppl sick. I have no doubt you in your siloed Dev team know very little about what exactly is happening with your final products. We outside of your bubble are growing tired of your superiors growth at ANY cost company policies. Take heed bro. Time is getting kind of short. The surveillance economy is gonna bust. I'm gonna help break it- Any way I ca…

Please don't post like this here.

I'm sorry if I offended you Daniel. I offer my sincere apologies as I've seen the good work you do here and know your job is not easy. That being said I'd also like to add that these parasite corporations who keep pushing the envelope in regards to maximizing profits due to tracking thier users 24 hours a day It just needs to stop I'm sorry if I touched nerve but this needs to be said. I'm not going to say millions of ppl are worried about this. I will say that I'm old enough to have followed Google from thier early days( And yes I made a bundle on thier stocks in the 2ktens) It's a whole new world now. Google is behaving like a parasite by hoovering up every single data point that they can,and yes it's legal and within thier ToS to do this - it's bad. It's probably evil. We could go on and on About it( how they destroy every single thing they touchit-And yes you can call me a hippocrate for using a Gmail Address and I accept your criticism( it's not my only one. Daniel if you have to shut me down again because I've pinched another nerve,so be it-

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#395

Post by ajxs » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 10:10 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #107

monocasa wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google was also very positively connected to the Obama administration. It was some googlers that stepped in and turned around healthcare.gov for instance. I've heard a lot of rumors that they gave a lot of data access to the campaigns too.

Not only is the amount of revolving door between Google and the Obama administration well documented, but Eric Schmidt was literally part of Hillary's campaign staff and personally funded a company to provide her campaign's development and infrastructure. Suffice to say, they have a lot less allies in DC this year, and even Democrats are starting to look negatively on them now.

Although this is a minor digression, I always felt that it was very interesting to contrast the overwhelming amount of airtime on the legacy media devoted to throwing fuel on the fire of "Russian interference in the 2016 election" with the scant concern for Alphabet's working relationship with the Clinton Campaign. I know I'm not the only person concerned with the disproportionate influence that companies like Google, Twitter, etc have on modern political discourse. Isn't it frightening that the assistance of such companies can be bought with the promise of regulatory lenience? Even if someone didn't agree with the previous statement, isn't it still of significant concern that the companies controlling the flow of information are participants in partisan politics?

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#396

Post by amanaplanacanal » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 10:25 PM UTC

panarky wrote: post #344

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what kind of argument is that? We should antitrust the other players you mention too.

Yet they don't. Selective enforcement is arbitrary, politically motivated enforcement.

Every enforcement agency at every level does selective enforcement. Nobody has the resources to go after every case of law-breaking.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#397

Post by sockpuppet999 » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #108

sockpuppet999 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not how the sausage is made that matters. The sausage is making ppl sick. I have no doubt you in your siloed Dev team know very little about what exactly is happening with your final products. We outside of your bubble are growing tired of your superiors growth at ANY cost company policies. Take heed bro. Time is getting kind of short. The surveillance economy is gonna bust. I'm gonna help break it- Any way I ca…

Please don't post like this here.

Dang please email me and tell me specifically what I've done wrong here. I'm not trying to shitpost, I m pointing out the obvious FYI. Perhaps you could step back little bit and try to understand my point of view before threaten me

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#398

Post by dang » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 10:43 PM UTC

481092 wrote: post #353

481092 wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that wrong? Maybe we should do something about Fox and Breitbart's link to the current administration then.

So much for intellectual honesty on this site. New user and I thought this was something praised here. The hypocrisy of upvoting the parent because they're against information propagators being linked to an administration while ignoring the elephant in the room.

I'm not sure what your complaint is about here, but it breaks the site guidelines. Would you mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and not posting comments like this? If you're concerned about something not being right on HN, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com so we can look into it.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#399

Post by jstewartmobile » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

eitland wrote: post #258

averros wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TV shows are notoriously bad sources of information about the real world. In the real world if the police has anything solid which they believe points at you as the perp, they will arrest you first (possibly after watching you for a while). Extracting information from you is so much easier when you are intimidated and fearful - as anyone would be after marinating for a few days in a cell. Talking to the police before…

rayiner is a notoriously good source of information. He is also a laywer, see his profile: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rayiner

Doesn't reduce the validity of averros comment.

Rayiner may be factually correct, but his comment normalized the great injustice of the situation.

Kid gets caught with a little pot at a parade, and the cops slam his ass to the ground and book him.

Google screws millions and millions daily, and they get a letter.

Lawyers are experts in law... not so much with justice.

Re: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

#400

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jun 01, 2019, 10:53 PM UTC

panarky wrote: post #197

threezero wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notice that no Googlers have a good response to this or the Eric Schmidt / Hillary Clinton connection. Google’s ties to the Obama administration were deep.

Which raises deep suspicions about the political motivations of this "investigation". Anti-trust is about companies using their market power to exclude rivals, raise prices, and hurt consumers. It's not about consumers overwhelmingly choosing a product because they like it more. Can anyone really say that Google's practices are more anti-competitive than, say, the dominant players in broadband or health insurance or…

>>Google’s ties to the Obama administration were deep.

>Which raises deep suspicions about the political motivations of this "investigation".

So, if a company was in bed with politician X, and get investigated under a future (opposition) politician Y, it's the ...political motivations of the investigation that you're concerned about?

That sounds totally backwards...

>Anti-trust is about companies using their market power to exclude rivals, raise prices, and hurt consumers. It's not about consumers overwhelmingly choosing a product because they like it more.

Well, Google uses its power over search results to do all of the above.