3 ms·

How did Google, Amazon, and Facebook cheat, in your opinion?

by TwoBit 10y ago

ransom1538 10y ago
Google: copyright infringement. [Crawling sites, taking data at will, then slapping ads on it, not paying the authors a portion of their ads] [4]. Tax evasion. [5--look for google] Amazon: sales tax avoidance (entire reason they exist) [1] later, federal tax evasion, including the double irish. [7]. Pusher of fake goods. [8] Pusher of fake reviews. Pusher of Chinese goods causing destructive env. practices. Facebook: selling personal information [2]. tax evasion (double irish) [3]. Enabled zynga (et al) to extort from children [6] 1. http://www.taxjusticeblog.org/archive/2016/11/at_amazoncom_sales_tax_evasion.php#.WJATHxA7SV8 http://www.taxjusticeblog.org/archive/2016/11/at_amazoncom_s... 2. https://consumerist.com/2014/06/12/facebook-is-now-selling-your-web-browsing-data-to-advertisers/ https://consumerist.com/2014/06/12/facebook-is-now-selling-y... 3. https://www.ft.com/content/ca64f938-5dc0-11e3-95bd-00144feabdc0 https://www.ft.com/content/ca64f938-5dc0-11e3-95bd-00144feab... 4. https://techcrunch.com/2009/02/11/google-book-settlement-site-is-up-paying-authors-60-per-scanned-book/ https://techcrunch.com/2009/02/11/google-book-settlement-sit... 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement 6. https://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus-faceboo/ https://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinku... 7. http://www.businessinsider.com/double-irish-other-corporate-tax-loopholes-2014-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/double-irish-other-corporate-... 8. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/08/amazons-chinese-counterfeit-problem-is-getting-worse.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/08/amazons-chinese-counterfeit-p... I probably could type all night.
- refurb 10y ago
  Tax avoidance is cheating? I guess I better not max out my 401k this year for the tax advantage! That would be cheating!
  - ransom1538 10y ago
    No but if you take your 401k money - withdraw it, create Irish shell companies, then have your employer pay the Irish shells , then tell the government you are Irish not a us citizen, liquidate all us holdings -- all to avoid IRS withholdings. Wtf? Please try it let me know how HRBlock goes. Edit: under "do you have foreign accounts" check "no" as well. (Actually don't do any of this you will end up in federal prison)
    - WillPostForFood 10y ago
      It is kind of silly to blame Amazon for not paying sales tax. The legal obligation was on the buyer, not the seller, in out of state purchases. No company in Amazon's situation was paying sales tax.
- sib 10y ago
  Per your linked article: "Thanks to a decades-old Supreme Court case, e-retailers operating outside of a state’s borders cannot be compelled to collect the sales taxes owed by their customers. For years, Amazon.com took advantage of this provision." Amazon was specifically not cheating; they were following the law. The same law as other e-retailers and catalog retailers before them followed.
Maarten88 10y ago
Facebook did (still does?) shadow profiles, which is illegal in EU, a sizeable part of their business. I suspect Google collects and keeps personally identifiable information in ways that are illegal in EU too. And of course YouTube directly created and profited from copyright infringement. And the internet industry as a whole has very effectively sabotaged the EU "cookie law", by implementing it in a way that annoys everyone and benefits nobody, pointing the blame at politicians while making big profits from privacy invasions of unsuspecting people.

How did Google, Amazon, and Facebook cheat, in your opinion?

by TwoBit 10y ago

How did Google, Amazon, and Facebook cheat, in your opinion?

Google: copyright infringement. [Crawling sites, taking data at will, then slapping ads on it, not paying the authors a portion of their ads] [4]. Tax evasion. [5--look for google] Amazon: sales tax avoidance (entire reason they exist) [1] later, federal tax evasion, including the double irish. [7]. Pusher of fake goods. [8] Pusher of fake reviews. Pusher of Chinese goods causing destructive env. practices. Facebook: selling personal information [2]. tax evasion (double irish) [3]. Enabled zynga (et al) to extort from children [6] 1. http://www.taxjusticeblog.org/archive/2016/11/at_amazoncom_sales_tax_evasion.php#.WJATHxA7SV8 http://www.taxjusticeblog.org/archive/2016/11/at_amazoncom_s... 2. https://consumerist.com/2014/06/12/facebook-is-now-selling-your-web-browsing-data-to-advertisers/ https://consumerist.com/2014/06/12/facebook-is-now-selling-y... 3. https://www.ft.com/content/ca64f938-5dc0-11e3-95bd-00144feabdc0 https://www.ft.com/content/ca64f938-5dc0-11e3-95bd-00144feab... 4. https://techcrunch.com/2009/02/11/google-book-settlement-site-is-up-paying-authors-60-per-scanned-book/ https://techcrunch.com/2009/02/11/google-book-settlement-sit... 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement 6. https://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus-faceboo/ https://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinku... 7. http://www.businessinsider.com/double-irish-other-corporate-tax-loopholes-2014-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/double-irish-other-corporate-... 8. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/08/amazons-chinese-counterfeit-problem-is-getting-worse.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/08/amazons-chinese-counterfeit-p... I probably could type all night.

refurb 10y ago
Tax avoidance is cheating? I guess I better not max out my 401k this year for the tax advantage! That would be cheating!
- ransom1538 10y ago
  No but if you take your 401k money - withdraw it, create Irish shell companies, then have your employer pay the Irish shells , then tell the government you are Irish not a us citizen, liquidate all us holdings -- all to avoid IRS withholdings. Wtf? Please try it let me know how HRBlock goes. Edit: under "do you have foreign accounts" check "no" as well. (Actually don't do any of this you will end up in federal prison)
  - WillPostForFood 10y ago
    It is kind of silly to blame Amazon for not paying sales tax. The legal obligation was on the buyer, not the seller, in out of state purchases. No company in Amazon's situation was paying sales tax.
sib 10y ago
Per your linked article: "Thanks to a decades-old Supreme Court case, e-retailers operating outside of a state’s borders cannot be compelled to collect the sales taxes owed by their customers. For years, Amazon.com took advantage of this provision." Amazon was specifically not cheating; they were following the law. The same law as other e-retailers and catalog retailers before them followed.

Maarten88 10y ago

Facebook did (still does?) shadow profiles, which is illegal in EU, a sizeable part of their business. I suspect Google collects and keeps personally identifiable information in ways that are illegal in EU too. And of course YouTube directly created and profited from copyright infringement. And the internet industry as a whole has very effectively sabotaged the EU "cookie law", by implementing it in a way that annoys everyone and benefits nobody, pointing the blame at politicians while making big profits from privacy invasions of unsuspecting people.