Whats the FCC charging facebook and the other 20+ companies that did the same thing?
If any of those companies were operating under a consent decree, as a result of previously violating users' privacy, and lying about it, they'll be fined too.
Google is being fined because they are an egregious repeat offender who made a contract (a settlement) with the government not to repeat their offenses, and then did. When you are a serial law breaker, when you have a criminal record, you get punished more severely. Too bad the FTC doesn't have a 3-strikes policy.
You should be fined for misrepresenting why they got fined. (And for making the argument that since someone else was doing it, that makes it ok. Oh, sure, you'll deny that's what you meant, but there is no other rational way to interpret that comment, other than that you got in a little Apple mudslinging at the same time.)
They got fined because they violated a consent decree, a legally binding agreement, where they promised not to violate users' privacy or lie about the fact that they were violating users' privacy. So, it's not just that Google was violating users' privacy with black hat ("evil") exploits, it's that they lied ("evil") about it, and broke a legally binding promise ("evil") not to violate users' privacy or lie about it. In other words, because they were deceitful & dishonest, and violated what is essentially a court order -- they lied, cheated and broke the law... again.
"Inadvertent." That's a funny choice of characterization of this particular privacy and consent decree violation. by Google. We all remember when they claimed the Street View data collection was "inadvertent", and then we found out that not only was it not, but that they lied to regulators about the extent of it and exactly what they collected.
Google has shown themselves, time and again, to be one of the most dishonest companies most of us have seen in our lifetimes. Lie, cheat, steal... do any evil. That pretty much sums them up. No respect for users, no respect for privacy, no respect for the law.
Does it surprise you that GoogleGuy misrepresented the facts?
I use Duckduckgo as my default search engine for over 90% of my search needs as a consequence of their admirable privacy policy.
The problem with Google is that it doesn't matter what their privacy policy says, or even that they promised to follow it, they'll still do whatever they want. Google's privacy policy isn't worth the bandwidth required to transmit it. (At least, back in the old days, you could have burned it to stay warm.)
Think about that. Google's privacy policy is empty rhetoric. Meaningless. A lie.
If they are lying about that, in the interests of maximizing profits, what else are they lying about? Are they padding the click-through numbers and overcharging advertisers? How else are they tracking users when they've promised they aren't? (And why should we think they aren't?) When a company shows that it will consistently say one thing and do another (Remember how they sold out net neutrality?) how can they be trusted at all, in anything they do. When a company consistently lies to cover up their wrong doing, how can you believe anything they say. Fundamentally dishonest. Repeated violations of the law. Their behavior is indefensible, reckless, and dangerous.
"The search company has said the tracking of Safari users was inadvertent, and no harm was caused to consumers."
There is no way that this tracking code came about by accident. It was willful, it was deliberate. That is the complete opposite of inadvertent. And all consumers affected by it were harmed. Their privacy requests were ignored -that is harm right there.
Google has advanced our civilization on this one. Instead of the American tradition of no-apology apologies "we are sorry if anyone one was hurt", we have now arrived at the "We didn't do anything and nothing happened to you" tradition. All we need now is some bold company to start following that up with "So STFU".
Serves the consumer right for clicking on a google product
;-)
That is not what happened. It was exactly the opposite. Just landing on a page Google was using Javascript in the background to dynamically create a form and submit it which appeared to the browser as if the user had clicked on the submit button. The user had no idea what was going on because it was totally invisible.
Google has shown themselves, time and again, to be one of the most dishonest companies most of us have seen in our lifetimes. Lie, cheat, steal... do any evil. That pretty much sums them up. No respect for users, no respect for privacy, no respect for the law.
It makes one wonder how the organizational structure disseminates this evilness downward through the ranks or does it percolate upwards from the hackers in the basement.
When THIS had to be put in writing instead of being common sense:
DON’T BE EVIL
Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served—as shareholders and in all other ways—by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company.
Google users trust our systems to help them with important decisions: medical, financial and many others. Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating. We also display advertising, which we work hard to make relevant, and we label it clearly. This is similar to a well-run newspaper, where the advertisements are clear and the articles are not influenced by the advertisers’ payments. We believe it is important for everyone to have access to the best information and research, not only to the information people pay for you to see.
"He" meaning Anonymouse? I put him on my blocked list and stopped responding to anything he has to say months ago. It had reached the point that whenever he replied to a post I made it comprised a series of ad-homs, false accusations and strawmen. Nothing to be gained by engaging as he gave no indication he wanted to have an honest debate.
You on the other hand sometimes have an actual argument to make responding to things I actually said. So what doyou claim was false about anything I said in this thread?
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Techstalker
Whats the FCC charging facebook and the other 20+ companies that did the same thing?
If any of those companies were operating under a consent decree, as a result of previously violating users' privacy, and lying about it, they'll be fined too.
Google is being fined because they are an egregious repeat offender who made a contract (a settlement) with the government not to repeat their offenses, and then did. When you are a serial law breaker, when you have a criminal record, you get punished more severely. Too bad the FTC doesn't have a 3-strikes policy.
I use Duckduckgo as my default search engine for over 90% of my search needs as a consequence of their admirable privacy policy.
Does it surprise you that GoogleGuy misrepresented the facts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cnocbui
I use Duckduckgo as my default search engine for over 90% of my search needs as a consequence of their admirable privacy policy.
The problem with Google is that it doesn't matter what their privacy policy says, or even that they promised to follow it, they'll still do whatever they want. Google's privacy policy isn't worth the bandwidth required to transmit it. (At least, back in the old days, you could have burned it to stay warm.)
Think about that. Google's privacy policy is empty rhetoric. Meaningless. A lie.
If they are lying about that, in the interests of maximizing profits, what else are they lying about? Are they padding the click-through numbers and overcharging advertisers? How else are they tracking users when they've promised they aren't? (And why should we think they aren't?) When a company shows that it will consistently say one thing and do another (Remember how they sold out net neutrality?) how can they be trusted at all, in anything they do. When a company consistently lies to cover up their wrong doing, how can you believe anything they say. Fundamentally dishonest. Repeated violations of the law. Their behavior is indefensible, reckless, and dangerous.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
Does it surprise you that GoogleGuy misrepresented the facts?
What did I misrepresent? It's an easy claim to make but some specifics would be nice.
When I have to use AdBlock, Ghostery, Do Not Track Plus, GoogleClickTracker, and Google Disconnect to stay relatively private on the Internet…
… and when I have to use Shellfish, Get Off My Lawn, Facebook Disconnect, and Twitter Disconnect to get rid of social networking…
… there's something wrong with the Internet.
I guess you can cheer all you want. You'll never see one red cent of the fine
"The search company has said the tracking of Safari users was inadvertent, and no harm was caused to consumers."
There is no way that this tracking code came about by accident. It was willful, it was deliberate. That is the complete opposite of inadvertent. And all consumers affected by it were harmed. Their privacy requests were ignored -that is harm right there.
Google has advanced our civilization on this one. Instead of the American tradition of no-apology apologies "we are sorry if anyone one was hurt", we have now arrived at the "We didn't do anything and nothing happened to you" tradition. All we need now is some bold company to start following that up with "So STFU".
But how could a company with such cute logos and vows of openness ever do any harm?
/sarcasm
Mmmmm that was my thought! LOL
It was us users that were screwed with after all. /smile
Yep, about time the Google logo was Hannibal Lecter in a face mask eh? /grin
He already provided them. Post #18.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andysol
Serves the consumer right for clicking on a google product
;-)
That is not what happened. It was exactly the opposite. Just landing on a page Google was using Javascript in the background to dynamically create a form and submit it which appeared to the browser as if the user had clicked on the submit button. The user had no idea what was going on because it was totally invisible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
… there's something wrong with the Internet.
What was your first clue?
Quote:
Originally Posted by anonymouse
Google has shown themselves, time and again, to be one of the most dishonest companies most of us have seen in our lifetimes. Lie, cheat, steal... do any evil. That pretty much sums them up. No respect for users, no respect for privacy, no respect for the law.
It makes one wonder how the organizational structure disseminates this evilness downward through the ranks or does it percolate upwards from the hackers in the basement.
When THIS had to be put in writing instead of being common sense:
The highlights are the best part.
I know that you reference the WSJ in your article, but you're also obliged to attribute that graphic to them.
Too bad it wasn't $22.5B That would really hurt their little ego and put this malpractice to rest. Identity theft all begins with Google!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
He already provided them. Post #18.
"He" meaning Anonymouse? I put him on my blocked list and stopped responding to anything he has to say months ago. It had reached the point that whenever he replied to a post I made it comprised a series of ad-homs, false accusations and strawmen. Nothing to be gained by engaging as he gave no indication he wanted to have an honest debate.
You on the other hand sometimes have an actual argument to make responding to things I actually said. So what do you claim was false about anything I said in this thread?