Tech Sector: We Are All Scroogled

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/228244/tech-sector-we-are-all-scroogled/



It apparently takes a whistle-blower before web companies really work on their security.

Tech Sector: We Are All Scroogled
NRC, The Netherlands
By Marc Hijink
Translated By Anne Hukkelhoven
9 December 2013
Edited by Lau­rence Bouvard

~snip~

Scroogled

The ad campaign Microsoft started against Google this year was already toe-curling. It’s called Scroogled, because Google scans all your messages for tailored ads and supposedly shares user data too easily with app developers.

You cannot trust Google, but you can trust us, according to Microsoft. There are Scroogled T-shirts and Scroogled coffee mugs, and there is a large Scroogle billboard along the road to Google Headquarters. According to the polite interpretation, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge from “A Christmas Carol” symbolizes Google’s greed. The less polite interpretation is that you, um … are screwed when you use Google.

The toes were able to curl even more. Last week a “Scroogled” film was brought out that targets Google’s cheap laptop, the Chromebook. Main characters from the reality show “Pawn Stars” read from a rickety script that a Chromebook is worth nothing at the pawn shop. Indeed, Chrome applications only work with an Internet connection. No, you better buy a Real Laptop. One with Windows. Microsoft spends an estimated $1.5 billion on Windows 8 marketing, but that cheap “Pawn Stars” video probably does more harm than good. The software maker has a thing for anti-publicity — probably the hangover from years of Apple’s campaign against the personal computer. Tip for Microsoft: If you really want to embarrass Google, make people watch “The Internship.” This awkward comedy about the crazy life of the Google campus has been fittingly described by The Guardian as a “$60 million PR blowjob for Google” — and not even a good one.

Technology firms could put their marketing budgets to better use. Because of the negative publicity surrounding the wiretapping scandal, the American tech sector is threatened with losing between $22 and $35 billion in turnover in the coming years. Customers in Europe, Brazil and China wonder whether Internet companies are still able to be trusted, or are only a toy of the American security services.

[Pholus]

1. Certainly open source looks damned good these days.

At least, theoretically, the NSA can't rewrite the software through some NDA deal with a tech company.

[Laelth]

2. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth