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Google's clandestine operations blown wide open by morse code.

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
I read this story. There's some controversy about who did what since Google is claiming that it was a third party they use and those people claim they did nothing wrong.

Like many such stories, I want to wait to hear what else might be disclosed.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Google's mission statement says to make all information universally accessible. I assume that includes your private conversations.

Their mission statement seems to imply there is no intellectual property rights.
And privacy, of course.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Google's mission statement says to make all information universally accessible. I assume that includes your private conversations.

Their mission statement seems to imply there is no intellectual property rights.
Try using some of Google's property rights and see what happens. *Grin*

Anyways , if they're going to use anything associated with my name, I will demand a royalty fee promptly paid post haste to yours truly. ;O]
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
Hmmm... when Google comes back with a snippet of relevant information (definition of a word, or a famous quote) I always assumed they were scanning the top search results for similar/corroborating content and just cutting out the "middle-man" - but I never suspected it as "foul play" - just getting people the information they were after faster. I especially expected this was the case because sometimes I would notice that little snippet contain some irrelevant information or the equivalent of an ellipsis ("..."). Song lyrics (being completely factual data) would easily allow for the same sort of processing.

In the end, I don't give a crap where factual data comes from - I just don't. I understand that the various providers of such data might care - but that isn't my problem. It isn't like they wrote the songs, and can claim copyright to the lyrics. This is them posting a factual account of someone else's work in the first place. If I really wanted to, I could turn to my 17 year old nephew and he could probably recite me the lyrics to a lot of popular songs. Seems to me this "Genius" website believes they are providing some important service to the people at large. They aren't.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
And privacy, of course.

Do you need your privacy?

Kind of a Borg mindset. If we all know everything there is to know about each other wouldn't we collectively be able to make the best choices?

Socialism would frown on intellectual property I suspect. Not that I'm judging it right or wrong myself. Just a different perspective.

What do you need your privacy for? What do you need to keep secret from the rest of the world?

IP is a revenue source. Obviously Genius sees this. Google say they care about your privacy but I think this is more PR than reality.

Privacy, the nemesis of socialism I'd think. How can we, the collective we, make the best choices for you unless we know everything about you?

If someone wanted to take over the job of being God, Google would be God's database.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
good luck in court. Even if it is truly illegal, so far the courts in the US haven't backed the users all that well.
Contracts don't work that way, why not agreements as well?

I suppose the recourse is not to use Google which might be a little difficult to do given that they're pretty much a monopoly.
 

David T

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
How did the pesky upstaart good guys become darth vadar and darth vadar (microsoft) is transmorphing into gandhi yoda? Look same hair even.

satya-bio.png
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Anyways , if they're going to use anything associated with my name, I will demand a royalty fee promptly paid post haste to yours truly. ;O]

More then likely, their dubious use of your name or things associated with your name, will be covered by some vague "up for interpretation" clause in their EULA, which you explicitly agreed to when signing up, or which you implicitly agree to when using their services. Your lawyer will find this despicable and fight it on the grounds of the language being unclear. And then Google will mobilize their multi-million dollar lawyer team and completely overrun your puny lawyer you are spending your life savings on.

And even if you indeed do have a "gotcha" moment, and manage to get a ruling in your favor, then what?
Ok, lucky you, you might get a couple of 100 thousand dollars. Perhaps even a million if you play your hand right. Then what? Then nothing. Google pays you money (to shut you up) and they just continue. On to the next victim, who'll more then likely not sue and if he does, who won't be as lucky as you.

For companies like Google, such "fines" are simply part of the marketing and PR budget.

Like Facebook the other day. Was it facebook? Not really sure, but I think it was. They published their revenue numbers. Billions of profit. There was a "calculated cost" of 3 billion. This was done in anticipation of a monster fine from the EU. They don't give a rat's behind. 3 billion? No problem... we still have 7 billion in profits left.

It doesn't hurt them at all. They are just minor obstacles, like mosquito's, on their path to virtual world domination.
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Do you need your privacy?

Yes. So do you.

Kind of a Borg mindset. If we all know everything there is to know about each other wouldn't we collectively be able to make the best choices?

No.

What do you need your privacy for? What do you need to keep secret from the rest of the world?

It's not necessarily about keeping secrets. It's also about things simply not being anyone's business. Like what I earn, who I'm dating, what I like in the bedroom, what kind of food I like, what my favorite restaurant is, etc etc etc.

And why do we need the right not disclose every inch of our lives in public? For protection and safety. To prevent abuse of such data. In a very very broad sense.

Take facebook. As you know, a LOT of people are literally throwing up their entire lives to facebook. They do this in two ways. First, by almost exclusively using facebook platforms for communication (facebook itself, instagram, whatsapp). Next, by surfing on the internet or using apps on all kinds of devices while facebook cookies track everything - including your location if you didn't explicitly tell your phone to turn that off.

On these people, facebook has a GIGANTIC psychological profile the accuracy of which is nothing short of scary. As several studies, as well as the case of Cambridge Analytics, have shown, it is practically trivial to use this data to literally manipulate people into doing certain things. AI engines can literally predict how you'll respond to certain things. Combine that with advertising and they can literally manipulate you into buying things you otherwise wouldn't have bought. It's an incredible abuse of human psychological weaknesses and the power of suggestion.

And the only reason this is possible, is because those people have given up on their privacy, by throwing up all their lives unto a public platform.


IP is a revenue source. Obviously Genius sees this. Google say they care about your privacy but I think this is more PR than reality.

Did you expect Google, which literally makes money by collecting your private data - the more data, the more money they can ask for ads, to say that they don't care about your private data?

How can we, the collective we, make the best choices for you unless we know everything about you?
Who decides what makes a choice "best"?
In a free society, I get to make choices myself, for myself.
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Contracts don't work that way, why not agreements as well?

I suppose the recourse is not to use Google which might be a little difficult to do given that they're pretty much a monopoly.

Pretty much a monopoly in terms of online advertisement.
In general, if you really want to, it's really not that hard to avoid them.

There's "duck duck go" as an alternative for search (they don't collect any data).
There's plenty of mail host options. Many of which aren't involved with advertisement.
It's also possible to use android builds for phones and tablets, that completely ignore google services as well as he online google app store. But likely for that, some tech savyness will become a bit of a requirement.

However, it's not impossible. But it is a hassle idd. One shouldn't have to do it in the first place.
One should be choosing search engines based on quality of service (being: quality of search results), not for reasons such as "they'll use my searches and clicks in ways that aren't to my liking".
 
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