4 ms·

Microsoft and Apple have both been in court during the last 12 months to block US government over-reach. Yahoo joins Amazon in ethusiastically facilitating it.

by rodgerd 10y ago

Microsoft and Apple have both been in court during the last 12 months to block US government over-reach. Yahoo joins Amazon in ethusiastically facilitating it. Your assertion isn't realistic, it's nonsense.

openasocket 10y ago
I'm curious, when has Amazon facilitated US government over-reach? I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head, and googling only provided a bunch of documentation for AWS's cloud offerings to government agencies.
- rodgerd 10y ago
  Amazon chose to boot WikiLeaks immediately after a US senator expressed displeasure with WL's original high-profile tranche of leaks.
  - openasocket 10y ago
    I'll be honest, that doesn't really bother me, assuming AWS wasn't forced or coerced into dropping WikiLeaks. I happen to disagree with a lot of WL's actions, and understand why AWS may not want to host stolen classified documents. I understand that you don't share that opinion, and that my opinion may not be the most popular one on HN. Any other examples?
spdustin 10y ago
I must have missed something, can someone elaborate on how Amazon has enthusiastically facilitated government overreach into citizens' privacy?
- duaneb 10y ago
  I would have assumed it's referring to this: https://aws.amazon.com/message/65348/ https://aws.amazon.com/message/65348/ I don't really see the point, though, I wouldn't want to host wikileaks either.
WallowC_33 10y ago
Sure, as far as we know, MS and Apple have been in the public eye as being against government overreach. I suspect it's less about protecting customers from the government and more about protecting themselves, though. But one needs their hands and toes to count the other areas in which Microsoft and Apple have conducted themselves... poorly? Apple in the poaching employees lawsuit. Spurious lawsuits over "design" (ie rounded corners on rectangles) trademarks. Colluding with music execs to push customers to their streaming music service (instead of ad supported "free" streaming on labels sites). Since this is about a CEO hate, Steve Jobs was a complete asshole by a number of accounts. Horribly abusive. Microsoft... well their track record should be well established. The absolute worst of which was releasing a mass market OS that was egregiously insecure by default (yet, around here, the conversation often is "I wish MS tested like they did back in the day." when webcams break, but I digress). Again, the CEO thing, Ballmer was borderline incompetent, Gates was involved in a number of shady market capture schemes. But you know, because in this one context of government over-reach, they did a bit better than Yahoo!, the parents position that they're all untrustable is complete nonsense. The only thing "wrong" Marissa did was not make a shit ton of money for Yahoo! No one would give this story another thought if Yahoo!'s stock was worth $100 more than it was when she started. That's about all MS and Apple have done "right". That end justified the means.
duaneb 10y ago
Court isn't likely to solve this. Only a wholesale rejection of terrorism as a realistic threat to, well, anything but our political process is going to do it. I assume the FBI is reading my email. You should, too, or you will be unhappy when you find out they are.

by rodgerd 10y ago

openasocket 10y ago

I'm curious, when has Amazon facilitated US government over-reach? I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head, and googling only provided a bunch of documentation for AWS's cloud offerings to government agencies.

rodgerd 10y ago
Amazon chose to boot WikiLeaks immediately after a US senator expressed displeasure with WL's original high-profile tranche of leaks.
- openasocket 10y ago
  I'll be honest, that doesn't really bother me, assuming AWS wasn't forced or coerced into dropping WikiLeaks. I happen to disagree with a lot of WL's actions, and understand why AWS may not want to host stolen classified documents. I understand that you don't share that opinion, and that my opinion may not be the most popular one on HN. Any other examples?

spdustin 10y ago

I must have missed something, can someone elaborate on how Amazon has enthusiastically facilitated government overreach into citizens' privacy?

duaneb 10y ago
I would have assumed it's referring to this: https://aws.amazon.com/message/65348/ https://aws.amazon.com/message/65348/ I don't really see the point, though, I wouldn't want to host wikileaks either.

WallowC_33 10y ago

Sure, as far as we know, MS and Apple have been in the public eye as being against government overreach. I suspect it's less about protecting customers from the government and more about protecting themselves, though. But one needs their hands and toes to count the other areas in which Microsoft and Apple have conducted themselves... poorly? Apple in the poaching employees lawsuit. Spurious lawsuits over "design" (ie rounded corners on rectangles) trademarks. Colluding with music execs to push customers to their streaming music service (instead of ad supported "free" streaming on labels sites). Since this is about a CEO hate, Steve Jobs was a complete asshole by a number of accounts. Horribly abusive. Microsoft... well their track record should be well established. The absolute worst of which was releasing a mass market OS that was egregiously insecure by default (yet, around here, the conversation often is "I wish MS tested like they did back in the day." when webcams break, but I digress). Again, the CEO thing, Ballmer was borderline incompetent, Gates was involved in a number of shady market capture schemes. But you know, because in this one context of government over-reach, they did a bit better than Yahoo!, the parents position that they're all untrustable is complete nonsense. The only thing "wrong" Marissa did was not make a shit ton of money for Yahoo! No one would give this story another thought if Yahoo!'s stock was worth $100 more than it was when she started. That's about all MS and Apple have done "right". That end justified the means.

duaneb 10y ago

Court isn't likely to solve this. Only a wholesale rejection of terrorism as a realistic threat to, well, anything but our political process is going to do it. I assume the FBI is reading my email. You should, too, or you will be unhappy when you find out they are.