Just how evil is Google?

[Renew Deal]

In today's episode of Notes From the Field we jump right over the question of "Has Google violated its famous 'Don't be evil' mantra?" and go straight to "By how much?"

Ben Edelman says they're plenty evil, and it's time to reconsider in a new light all of the mistakes Google has "accidentally" made –- from its ad policies to Wi-Fi spying -- following its recent settlement with the Department of Justice over pharma ads.

Edelman is a Harvard Law professor and a serious geek who made his bones by exposing spyware and adware companies. He's since moved on to research Google's collusion with typosquatters and how its search toolbars track consumers even after they opt out, to name but a few topics.

The background: For a period of several years, Google allowed Canadian pharmacies to advertise their wares in the United States, despite laws prohibiting advertisements from non-U.S. pill-pushers. Google claimed it had no idea this was happening, and once it discovered the illegal ads, it put an end to the practice. However, in papers filed with the DOJ, the ad giant admits that it knew it was breaking the law all along, but pocketed the money just the same.
{snip}

http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/just-how-evil-google-171070

[FSogol]

1. D- Please stay after class.

:shrug:

[Arctic Dave]

2. Google, Facebook are the bigest spy agency around.

Surveillance ( /sərˈveɪ.əns/ or /sərˈveɪləns/)<1> is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner. It most usually refers to observation of individuals or groups by government organizations, but disease surveillance, for example, is monitoring the progress of a disease in a community.

The word surveillance is the French word for "watching over".

The word surveillance may be applied to observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment (such as CCTV cameras), or interception of electronically transmitted information (such as Internet traffic or phone calls). It may also refer to simple, relatively no- or low-technology methods such as human intelligence agents and postal interception.

Surveillance is very useful to governments and law enforcement to maintain social control, recognize and monitor threats, and prevent/investigate criminal activity. With the advent of programs such as the Total Information Awareness program and ADVISE, technologies such as high speed surveillance computers and biometrics software, and laws such as the Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act, governments now possess an unprecedented ability to monitor the activities of their subjects.<2>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance

[nc4bo]

3. Google getting on my last nerve, the spying is 1 but the webpage content on mouseover

is an absolute pain in the ass that I have yet to figure out how to disable.

Hate it. Annoying. I don't want to see a sample of the content of every search result thank you very much.

[Renew Deal]

5. The mouseover preview only works if you mouseover the magnifying glass

:shrug:

[nc4bo]

6. I wish.

It's happening as soon as my mouse lands on any of the search results, the search paragraph turns blue and the stupid preview thing pops up.

Hate that thing. Hate hate hate.

[Xithras]

4. So, let me get this straight....

Canadian pharmacies offer safe medication from major manufacturers at a fraction of their U.S. price, often pennies on the dollar, making it available to the elderly and poor at a price their meager incomes can afford. Big pharma, aghast at the profits they were losing because of these Canadian retailers, greased enough congressional palms to get a law passed that banned those ads, to make it harder for those most in need of those low cost medications to actually find them. Google ignored the law and ran the ads anyway.

And that makes them evil?

I realize they did it for profit, but I'll take civil disobedience to unjust and corrupt laws any way I can get it.