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I have absolutely no quarrel or suspicion of the average Yandex employee. I'm sure the company is filled with intelligent and well-intentioned people. But sure

by hastur 15y ago

I have absolutely no quarrel or suspicion of the average Yandex employee. I'm sure the company is filled with intelligent and well-intentioned people. But surely you must realize, you would have no idea if the security services had exerted some form of control over your company. If there is any control, and I'll insist there almost certainly is, there's a handful of people who know about it. And they won't tell you, because they are the very ones controlled and too concerned about their job, freedom or personal safety. So while obviously you can't say that Yandex _is_ FSB, I'd say you can pretty much assume that Twitter giving some privileged access to its data to Yandex is equivalent to giving privileged access to Russian intelligence. "Please, would you be so intelligent not to state things of which you are not sure?" - Well, if all we cared about were raw, 100% confirmed facts, we should abandon any form of discussion and just read news. For instance, what good is advice for entrepreneurs, when it's just conclusions and generalizations drawn from someone's narrow experience? No, the whole point of having a sensible discussion is to actually draw conclusions, challenge them and reassess. And as I said earlier, Yandex is too important and too influential in the tech sphere (from Russian perspective) not to draw interest from the security services. Considering their enormous power and impunity, I find it almost certain that they would use Yandex for their own benefit. With appropriate care and discretion, of course, otherwise it defies the purpose.

ellynix 15y ago
>the whole point of having a sensible discussion is to actually draw conclusions, challenge them and reassess. You know, any form of conspiracy theory is a mind trap (because it doesn't satisfy falsifiability criterion) and allows to draw any conclusions that will suffice a need for endless discussion. Are there any arguments that will convince you not all russian companies are under KGB/mafia/Putin control?
- hastur 15y ago
  Not all are, because not all of them are worth it. For most companies, the worst scenario is that a low-ranking officer will ask them for a little money for krysha. But Yandex is no small potatoes. Also, it's a mind trap to refuse to ponder the behavior of security services just because we have little information. It's their very nature not to let us know what they're doing, but scraps of information amass with time and you can connect the dots. Or perhaps you think that we should not try to think to much about these topics? I'm sure you've heard of Russian authorities cracking down on some NGOs under the pretext of fighting software piracy. Do you really think it was about illegal Windows and Office? Or perhaps someone didn't like what these organizations were doing, but had no legal arguments against these activities? See, I have no evidence in this case whatsoever, and yet I know with 99% certainty that the real reason had nothing to do with piracy. But call me a conspiracy theorist.
  - ellynix 15y ago
    Oh, please! Don't assume I'm brainwashed zombie living in Orwell's 1984 and you're opening my eyes. I can tell more stories about crimes of russian authorities, corruption and general living in country where human rights are ignored more than you would want to listen. But still I insist on being reasonable, do not invent imaginary problems in place of the hundreds of real ones and do not paint everything in black-and-white. Anyway, it's good that you're so concerned about russian authorities crimes.

by hastur 15y ago

ellynix 15y ago

>the whole point of having a sensible discussion is to actually draw conclusions, challenge them and reassess. You know, any form of conspiracy theory is a mind trap (because it doesn't satisfy falsifiability criterion) and allows to draw any conclusions that will suffice a need for endless discussion. Are there any arguments that will convince you not all russian companies are under KGB/mafia/Putin control?

hastur 15y ago
Not all are, because not all of them are worth it. For most companies, the worst scenario is that a low-ranking officer will ask them for a little money for krysha. But Yandex is no small potatoes. Also, it's a mind trap to refuse to ponder the behavior of security services just because we have little information. It's their very nature not to let us know what they're doing, but scraps of information amass with time and you can connect the dots. Or perhaps you think that we should not try to think to much about these topics? I'm sure you've heard of Russian authorities cracking down on some NGOs under the pretext of fighting software piracy. Do you really think it was about illegal Windows and Office? Or perhaps someone didn't like what these organizations were doing, but had no legal arguments against these activities? See, I have no evidence in this case whatsoever, and yet I know with 99% certainty that the real reason had nothing to do with piracy. But call me a conspiracy theorist.
- ellynix 15y ago
  Oh, please! Don't assume I'm brainwashed zombie living in Orwell's 1984 and you're opening my eyes. I can tell more stories about crimes of russian authorities, corruption and general living in country where human rights are ignored more than you would want to listen. But still I insist on being reasonable, do not invent imaginary problems in place of the hundreds of real ones and do not paint everything in black-and-white. Anyway, it's good that you're so concerned about russian authorities crimes.