diff --git a/content/thoughts/why-are-you-telling-people-to-smoke.md b/content/thoughts/why-are-you-telling-people-to-smoke.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..baddf82 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/thoughts/why-are-you-telling-people-to-smoke.md @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ ++++ +title = "Why Are You Telling People To Smoke?" +date = 2021-04-06 +draft = true + +[taxonomies] +tags = ["analogies", "google"] ++++ + +If you ask someone that do smoke why they do that, they would say that it takes +the stress out, and they feel calmer. + +So, why don't we recommend anyone that suffers from stress or anxiety to smoke? + + + +The reason is: Even if smoking indeed makes people feel calmer and less +stressed out, the amount of damage it does to their health is worse than those +things. + +Lost? Why would I mention that? + +The reason is that I feel recommending Google things is akin to suggest people +to smoke. + +Let's start with Andy Rubin. Rubin was the CEO of Android Inc, and became a +manager on Google after the later bought the former. But in 2014 [Rubin left +Google](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Rubin), receiving a good package of +$90 million. But why he left the company? 'Cause, apparently, he was involved +in sexual harassment to another Google company. Why "apparently"? 'Cause Google +had a policy of "arbitration", in which no employee could take another employee +to court, but an arbitrator would judge the thing. And, because Google was +responsible for pointing the arbitrator and everything happened "in house", +allegations and counterclaims are known only to Google. If Rubin did or did not +harass someone sexually is something that we can be sure (although the timing +is a bit... awkward). + +But if everything was made behind closed doors, how do we know about it? + +Exactly because arbitration was in the cards and people didn't want important +people to get some "bad press" and that's fucking wrong, [some other employees +organized a walkout](https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2019-11-06/google-employee-walkout-tech-industry-activism), +in which people would get into and then not work. Good thing it worked and +arbitration was taken out of the equation; harassment now would go to court and +bad actors would actually be exposed. + +All good now? Not quite. After organizing something to protect -- let's not +hide things here -- women working in Google, [the organizers started getting +retaliations](https://www.vox.com/2019/4/23/18512542/google-employee-walkout-organizers-claim-retaliation). +One example was Meredith Whittaker, which being an AI research, got reassigned +to another project and stop working on the AI ethics (and oh boy, do we have +more shit coming in that "AI ethics" topic). + +One step forward, one step back. + +But maybe you're not a woman and really don't care how Google employees are +treated, so you ignore all that 'cause you get free photo storage. + +In 2015, Google released a new feature on their Google Photos suite: Automatic +tagging. No more having to go through all your photos to mark them as "mum" or +"car" or even "Barcelona". It's all automagical! Except that, for some reason, +if you're a black person, Google Photos would mark you as a "gorilla". Quite +offensive, right? No worries, Google said the problem was the algorithm and +said it would be fixed. Their fix? Remove the tag "gorilla" -- so, they didn't +*fix* it per se, the algorithm would still recognize black people and gorillas +as being the same thing, but wouldn't have a tag for it. + +Hangouts XMPP syndication + +Chrome: don't remove Goog cookies + +Chrome: ad blocking API; uBlock Origin removed from store + +Chrome: Sabotaging other browsers: +https://twitter.com/campuscodi/status/1074782772470910976, +https://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/youtube-speed-faster-google-chrome-mozilla-firefox-microsoft-edge-1889651 + +Chrome: Remove user software +https://www.ghacks.net/2018/01/20/how-to-block-the-chrome-software-reporter-tool-software_reporter_tool-exe/ + +Android 4.2.2: AppOps (2013); semi-funcional in 6.0 (2015). + +https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/googles-dangerous-monopoly-based + +GCP: Metadata for 30 days. + +Basecamp ads complain: +https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/google-paid-search-ads-shakedown-basecamp-ceo-says.html + +AMP: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50432080: Sham site; gets money by +copy'n'pasting news from other sites, get ad revenues. How is that different +from AMP showing content without ever reaching your site? + +https://www.polemicdigital.com/google-amp-go-to-hell/ + +Genius: Watermarks in lyrics. + +Project Nightingale: Google accesses trove of US patient data (Google has +gained access to a huge trove of US patient data - without the need to notify +those patients - thanks to a deal with a major health firm.) + +YouTube is updating their Terms of Service on 10 December, 2019. It presents an +awful possibility for the future of creators on the platform. It seems they +will be able to terminate your channel if it's "no longer commercially +viable."; in other words, wherever they feel like. + +YouTube: Forced monetization + +Gmail capturing purchases, without any warning (which tells more about how +"permissive" their terms are than anything else). + +Paying climate denials to avoid having to moderate content. + +filters aggressively mails from personal servers +(https://mastodon.sdf.org/@julienxx) +https://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2019-December/104502.html + +Amnesty International: Facebook and Google are a threat to human rights: +https://www.engadget.com/2019/11/21/facebook-google-amnesty-international-human-rights/ + +https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-13/google-culture-war-escalates-as-era-of-transparency-wanes + +https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking + +https://www.engadget.com/2019-06-26-google-employees-protest-san-francisco-pride-parade.html + +https://twitter.com/pinboard/status/1141838179936243714?s=21 + +https://www.mic.com/p/gmails-confidential-mode-isnt-as-private-as-it-seems-according-to-experts-18136277 + + + +![Screenshot from 2020-10-22 16-32-25.png](:/1c0f5bcf4bf34430a03a944625a7b26b) + + +https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/chrome-google.html + +https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/19/google_cookie_wipe/