Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
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Re: Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
#2The UK is, relatively speaking, not a corrupt country, but this is one of its biggest problems. The magazine Private Eye basically every week lists out multiple cases where well-paid managers have moved between government and industry and used influence of one to help their friends in the other. Nobody seems to pay it too much attention. But you build one duck-moat..
Re: Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
#3Google has collected vasts amount of information and they can recruit skill and develop almost any type of software they want.
It seems like a no brainer they're going to play an ever growing role in government.
How big a role do they play? What is the limits?
Re: Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
#4I'm not sure how this is very different than Goldman saches both hiring former members of the SEC and having many of its employees go on to fill top financial regulatory positions in government. People are not up in arms about that. I am sure other top banks in Europe do similar things ie have people they can influence in top positions or hire them.
It is mostly likely google is the nrw kid on the block trying this sort of thing, and the first tech company to try it at this extent. People just don't like change, and the people who used to have that power (large financial institutions ) don't like that the weird kids from palo alto are moving in their territory
Re: Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
#5Google has collected vasts amount of information and they can recruit skill and develop almost any type of software they want. It seems like a no brainer they're going to play an ever growing role in government. How big a role do they play? What is the limits?
Is it a bad thing that Google plays a more involved role? They have on numerous occasions lent their technical expertise to improve horibly broke aspects of the federal govt (Healthcare.Gov is an example) . If they can improve the technical aspects (open apis for govt data for example), it might help bring more light to the parts of govt that are unavailable to ordinary citizens.
Re: Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
#6The most important piece of the article:
> Questions have been raised about who funds the Google Transparency Project. The CfA declined to say, and this prompted suspicion that it is bankrolled by rival media and internet companies keen to check the company’s power.
If you're going to be a transparency-watchdog, it helps that your own organization remains transparent as well.
Re: Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
#7Google has collected vasts amount of information and they can recruit skill and develop almost any type of software they want. It seems like a no brainer they're going to play an ever growing role in government. How big a role do they play? What is the limits?
Is it a bad thing that Google plays a more involved role? They have on numerous occasions lent their technical expertise to improve horibly broke aspects of the federal govt (Healthcare.Gov is an example) . If they can improve the technical aspects (open apis for govt data for example), it might help bring more light to the parts of govt that are unavailable to ordinary citizens.
No one cares if they build websites for the gov't (indeed it's exemplary citizenship), the concern is rather that their involvement will include influencing policy. They have many interests relating to existing or potential regulations (on self-driving cars or big-data mining, for instance.) Their interests aren't necessarily so obviously malign as oil or cigarette lobbyists, but we'd still like regulators to be theoretically acting purely for the sake of the public good.
Re: Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
#8I'm not sure how this is very different than Goldman saches both hiring former members of the SEC and having many of its employees go on to fill top financial regulatory positions in government. People are not up in arms about that. I am sure other top banks in Europe do similar things ie have people they can influence in top positions or hire them. It is mostly likely google is the nrw kid on the block trying this s…
>It is mostly likely google is the nrw kid on the block trying this sort of thing
Right. Basically the banks have been playing this game for so long and are quite smart about it so they've learned how to keep things on the down low so the public won't get up in arms about it. They're also way ahead of tech in the PR game (or rather, not having undesireable PR pop up). Just look at how much flak big tech gets vs big banks (imo both have issues) with respect to gender equality and inclusivity, even though the banks are just as bad if not worse for women and many minority groups.
Re: Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
#9I'm not sure how this is very different than Goldman saches both hiring former members of the SEC and having many of its employees go on to fill top financial regulatory positions in government. People are not up in arms about that. I am sure other top banks in Europe do similar things ie have people they can influence in top positions or hire them. It is mostly likely google is the nrw kid on the block trying this s…
>People are not up in arms about that.
They absolutely are. Goldman Sachs has earned the derisive nickname "Government Sachs" for a reason.
Re: Google: new concerns raised about political influence by ‘revolving door’ jobs
#10The more I see the name "Alphabet" the more crooked and untrustworthy everything associated with it feels.
It will be a cancerous flaw staining the reputation that Google has thus far earned, until it goes away.
It feels like a pre-emptive "Altria" or "Xe Services" type rebrand, and it smells foul and deceptive.