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If U.S or E.U would want to break up Google, how would it realistically work? I hope we see that happening, the company has become a monster and can literally

If U.S or E.U would want to break up Google, how would it realistically work? I hope we see that happening, the company has become a monster and can literally tell the world what to think and how to feel.

islanderfun 9y ago
OT: I agree Google has become monster-ish. But when this talk comes up, I can't help but think Amazon is just as if not more of a monster. Especially the employee horror stories and now slashing Whole Food prices. While its awesome for it's customers, I'm worried about long term effects. /r
- cisanti 9y ago
  But Google has much more global power. Amazon is in Europe and other places too, but nowhere strong as in the United States. Google, on the other hand, has most of the world under its arm, besides China and maybe Russia.
- gaius 9y ago
  I can easily choose to avoid Amazon - they aren't seeding the entire internet with sly tracking technologies. They are a logistics business that makes money by moving stuff from warehouses to customers. Similarly Apple wants to sell you an iPhone and a laptop and Microsoft wants to sell you an office suite and a database. Real companies with real products and services. But Google's ONLY business is stealing and selling personal data.
  - kromem 9y ago
    Really? Go ahead and avoid anything hosted on or using AWS. Might be a bit difficult, and you may reconsider Amazon's scale relative to Google.
    - gaius 9y ago
      A fair point but I've not seen even a hint that Amazon themselves are tracking me across AWS hosted services. Do you have any evidence or links?
      - sbov 9y ago
        I'm pretty sure companies would not be happy if they found out Amazon was tracking those companies' customers. If it got out, it would probably be huge. Not worth it for Amazon to do this.
        londons_explore 9y ago
        The only practical way to do such tracking reliably would be to inject html into every page loaded from one of their CDN's. That would be visible to everyone, and they don't do this. Hence, either they have fairly ineffective IP address based tracking, or no tracking at all.
      - ludjer 9y ago
        They wont need to add cookies or anything like that. They can track you just by parsing the connection logs on their routers and switches. Also every thing that is billable is logged. So technically they are already tracking and recording every access across their network. It is impossible to verify if they actually do this without anyone leaking information that worked on the system.
ocdtrekkie 9y ago
Well, bear in mind, the US and the EU effectively can only mandate how Google operates as long as it does business there. So both the US and the EU have the ability to demand Google be broken up, but it will be up to Google, as an international entity, whether they want to leave the territory that orders it or comply to the extent that the regulator in a sovereign territory is appeased. See also, the recent Canadian decision: Canada can order that Google do something worldwide. But the extent of enforcement ends at "Canada decides what happens with businesses that operate in Canada. Google's free to leave."
- kuschku 9y ago
  You have to remember, though, that these aren’t small national governments. If Google really pissed off the EU, or US, they could simply force all banks to freeze Google’s assets, and seize them. This has worked in the past, and can be used again.
  - gaius 9y ago
    They aren't being a genuine, credible anti-corporate voice either. These are nation states. They can start arresting Google's employees too. "Officer of the company" is not just an empty phrase.
    - gaius 9y ago
      What happened here? My original comment about Trump is gone and replaced with the body of another comment I made.
  - thejynxed 9y ago
    If the EU and US really pissed off Google, imagine the things that would start appearing in news centers all over the world that Google has stashed away on storage drives in some backroom server.
    - kuschku 9y ago
      This might cause issues in many countries, but there’s equally many stories about Google that can quickly be on the front page of all German newspapers, and would cause a rioting mob to lynch Google’s developers.
BearGoesChirp 9y ago
Immediate seizure with lethal force to any who resist. Same way they treat the average citizen who they think is involved in profiting off of illegal activity. I really with this happened more (there is at least one major bank that knowingly laundered drug money who should be fully seized). This should include any and all legal and PR assets, they'll be given a single public defender who will take on the case for them.

islanderfun 9y ago

OT: I agree Google has become monster-ish. But when this talk comes up, I can't help but think Amazon is just as if not more of a monster. Especially the employee horror stories and now slashing Whole Food prices. While its awesome for it's customers, I'm worried about long term effects. /r

cisanti 9y ago
But Google has much more global power. Amazon is in Europe and other places too, but nowhere strong as in the United States. Google, on the other hand, has most of the world under its arm, besides China and maybe Russia.
gaius 9y ago
I can easily choose to avoid Amazon - they aren't seeding the entire internet with sly tracking technologies. They are a logistics business that makes money by moving stuff from warehouses to customers. Similarly Apple wants to sell you an iPhone and a laptop and Microsoft wants to sell you an office suite and a database. Real companies with real products and services. But Google's ONLY business is stealing and selling personal data.
- kromem 9y ago
  Really? Go ahead and avoid anything hosted on or using AWS. Might be a bit difficult, and you may reconsider Amazon's scale relative to Google.
  - gaius 9y ago
    A fair point but I've not seen even a hint that Amazon themselves are tracking me across AWS hosted services. Do you have any evidence or links?
    - sbov 9y ago
      I'm pretty sure companies would not be happy if they found out Amazon was tracking those companies' customers. If it got out, it would probably be huge. Not worth it for Amazon to do this.
      - londons_explore 9y ago
        The only practical way to do such tracking reliably would be to inject html into every page loaded from one of their CDN's. That would be visible to everyone, and they don't do this. Hence, either they have fairly ineffective IP address based tracking, or no tracking at all.
    - ludjer 9y ago
      They wont need to add cookies or anything like that. They can track you just by parsing the connection logs on their routers and switches. Also every thing that is billable is logged. So technically they are already tracking and recording every access across their network. It is impossible to verify if they actually do this without anyone leaking information that worked on the system.

ocdtrekkie 9y ago

Well, bear in mind, the US and the EU effectively can only mandate how Google operates as long as it does business there. So both the US and the EU have the ability to demand Google be broken up, but it will be up to Google, as an international entity, whether they want to leave the territory that orders it or comply to the extent that the regulator in a sovereign territory is appeased. See also, the recent Canadian decision: Canada can order that Google do something worldwide. But the extent of enforcement ends at "Canada decides what happens with businesses that operate in Canada. Google's free to leave."

kuschku 9y ago
You have to remember, though, that these aren’t small national governments. If Google really pissed off the EU, or US, they could simply force all banks to freeze Google’s assets, and seize them. This has worked in the past, and can be used again.
- gaius 9y ago
  They aren't being a genuine, credible anti-corporate voice either. These are nation states. They can start arresting Google's employees too. "Officer of the company" is not just an empty phrase.
  - gaius 9y ago
    What happened here? My original comment about Trump is gone and replaced with the body of another comment I made.
- thejynxed 9y ago
  If the EU and US really pissed off Google, imagine the things that would start appearing in news centers all over the world that Google has stashed away on storage drives in some backroom server.
  - kuschku 9y ago
    This might cause issues in many countries, but there’s equally many stories about Google that can quickly be on the front page of all German newspapers, and would cause a rioting mob to lynch Google’s developers.

BearGoesChirp 9y ago

Immediate seizure with lethal force to any who resist. Same way they treat the average citizen who they think is involved in profiting off of illegal activity. I really with this happened more (there is at least one major bank that knowingly laundered drug money who should be fully seized). This should include any and all legal and PR assets, they'll be given a single public defender who will take on the case for them.