4 ms·
The past several years should be remembered as the time when Google has not only stopped "not being evil" but actually turned towards becoming your regular evil
by mtgx 8y ago
The past several years should be remembered as the time when Google has not only stopped "not being evil" but actually turned towards becoming your regular evil corp.
Let's do a short recapt:
1) started making Android more proprietary
2) stopped caring about end-to-end encryption
3) started wishing to become a military contractor
4) started abusing its monopoly power in certain markets (already convicted for one, another coming very soon)
5) stopped caring about free speech of its global users and banned anti-censorship tools
6) started wanting to go back to China (and compromise with whatever the new more dictatorial government is asking of them)
7) started hoarding bogus patents, just like Microsoft and IBM, and will likely soon start using them against competitors, too
8) started pretending to care about user privacy by quietly de-anonymizing users and tying their searches to their real names and IP addresses
9) stopped fighting for net neutrality, because now that's what suits it
10) started lobbying against privacy laws
These are just off the top of my head right now. I probably forgot a few. Google is no longer the bright-eyed company it used to be. Now it's all about exploiting users and entering whatever business it needs to enter or take whatever action it needs to take to increase that quarterly revenue.
- maxbond 8y agoHow likely do people think it is that we'll see another divestiture a la Bell Telephone with Alphabet and Amazon? I'm not going to make the case for divestiture, I don't really know what should be done. It seems to me that the places you'd divide these businesses are far fuzzier, and the argument that their free or cheap products are hurting consumers is more difficult to make, but that there is no real chance of a new competitor challenging them in the market and that liberties protected by our governments offline are increasingly offered at their pleasure online.
- chiefalchemist 8y agoShort answer: Too long. Phones were not high tech. Most elected offials (and those they appoint) can barely use a fax machine, let alone disect and legislate today's status quo. Furthermore, if you see these companies as a proxy surveillance state - as anyone reasonable should - then the odds for divestiture approach zero.
- pinewurst 8y agoI have to disagree with the “phone are not high-tech” part having worked in switching systems. Phones themselves are pretty crude implements but the backend has been very technologically advanced for the last century. Bell Labs earned their reputation properly.
- maxbond 8y agoWithout applying a moral judgment ("is/n't high-tech") I think we can all agree that phone systems were less abstract than the systems Alphabet and Amazon are operating. The Bell system had clear, regional lines it could be broken up along, and that was a convenient handle for legislators to grab onto. It's not clear to me how you could go about breaking up Alphabet, and it must be very confusing for someone with more of a background in civics than software.
- chiefalchemist 8y agoThanks for clearing that up. I should have said "relatively low tech." Also, as you noted, Ma Bell was The Phone Company. I'm not so sure Google is that silo'ed.
- pjmlp 8y agoPeople are just naive to attribute whatever human feelings to corporations. It is all about the board and how to keep an impossible eternal yearly increase in profits, everything else is just good PR to help selling whatever helps achieving that goal.
- JarlUlvi 8y agoI agree with what you wrote, but let us not forget they also: 11) Started blacklisting ideological conservatives 12) Directly supported a political candidate of the worst sort 13) Lied about influencing voting by biased search results associated with opposing political campaigns Simply put, Google is now Evil