Tag: Google

Spying and Storing: Assange Says ‘Google Works like NSA’: Almost Identical to NSA

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange equated Google with the National Security Agency and GCHQ, saying the tech giant has become “a privatized version of the NSA,” as it collects, stores, and indexes people’s data. He made his remarks to BBC and Sky News. “Google’s business model is the spy. It makes more than 80 percent of its money by collecting information about people, pooling it together, storing it, indexing it, building profiles of people to predict their interests and behavior, and then selling those profiles principally to advertisers, but also others,” Assange told BBC. “So the result is that Google, in terms of how it works, its actual practice, is almost identical to the National Security Agency or GCHQ,” the whistleblower argued. ‘Google deeply involved in US foreign policy’ Google has been working with the NSA “in terms of contracts since at least 2002,” Assange told Sky News.

Google Stays in Bed with Mercenaries, …

YASHA LEVINE / The 4th Media News on

Google distances itself from the Pentagon, stays in bed with mercenaries and intelligence contractors “The United States government spends about $80 billion a year on information technology, making it the largest consumer of technology projects in the world.” —New York Times With all the hubbub about NSA spying, Google’s PR people really want you to know how separate the company is from America’s military-industrial complex. Earlier this week, Google made a big show of refusing DARPA funding for two robotics manufacturers it purchased, even though the companies themselves were financed with plenty of DoD cash. It’s a nice gesture, and one that was welcomed by those who want Silicon Valley to be free of government interference. Unfortunately, while a crowd-pleasing announcement is good for Google’s public image, it does nothing to change the company’s long and ongoing history of working closely with US military and surveillance agencies. Last week, I detailed how Google does much more than simply provide us civvies with email and search apps. It sells its tech to enhance the surveillance operations of the biggest and most powerful intel agencies in the world: NSA, FBI, CIA, DEA and NGA — the whole murky alphabet soup.

The Google Sends Personal Infos to APP Developers Without User Knowledge or Consent: WILL The Users EVER KNOW?

Madison Ruppert / The 4th Media News on

In a disturbing new report, it is revealed that every person who downloads an application through Google Play has had their personal information including name, email and address passed on to the developer without their knowledge or consent. While this might be troubling, perhaps even more troubling is the highly secretive relationship between Google and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), their ties to the U.S. intelligence community and the lack of transparency in their so-called transparency reports. Still, this “flaw,” uncovered by an app developer in Sydney, Australia, is no small matter. Perhaps the most concerning aspect of the report by news.com.au is the point that the “flaw” actually “appears to be by design.”

Google Moves to Destroy Online Anonymity

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Governments Move to Destroy Online Anonymity     Some of the world’s leading social critics and political critics have used pen names. As Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge points out (edited slightly for readability): Though often maligned…

Yahoo! axes workers in latest turn-around bid

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Struggling US Internet pioneer Yahoo! says it will slash some 2000 jobs in a purge aimed at transforming into a “smaller, nimbler, more profitable” company. Yahoo! chief executive Scott Thompson, who took the helm in…