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The minute that anything even remotely resembling that happens, you will find the full force of the federal government and every possible legal resource come to
by crabasa 13y ago
The minute that anything even remotely resembling that happens, you will find the full force of the federal government and every possible legal resource come to bear on Google. The hypothetical that you stated isn't just related to judges, it's relevant to the most powerful people in the world.
Which is precisely why it won't happen. The people in charge at Google understand this existential threat and that is why every feasible cultural and technical safeguard exists to prevent this from happening.
- mtgx 13y agoThat's assuming the government or certain agencies like NSA wouldn't already try to get Google to abuse that power in their favor, and be a very willing partner for them. But the thing is Google has been one of the companies that has actively fought the hardest against such government abuses. Others on the other hand are more than willing to do it. How long did it take Microsoft to brag to the Chinese authorities that they are on the Chinese government's side, just so they can gain 1% market share if Google was banned from China? A whole week? What about the partnership to create the surveillance tool that is TOM-Skype? So yes, I think we could do much, much worse than Google.
- threeseed 13y agoSo Microsoft is opportunistic. Big deal. Google was equally quite happy to "brag to the Chinese authorities that they are on the Chinese government's side" as well in the past. They just maybe didn't understand the implications of what they meant. Yes. We could do much, much worse than Google. We could also do much, much better. But the fact is that every company is complying with the basic tenants of the law and that is all that anyone can expect of them really.