Google Eats the World

[seemslikeadream]

Leaked memo suggests that Google has not really canceled its censored, spying Chinese search tool

Last December, human rights advocates and Google employees cheered when they learned that internal dissent at Google had killed the company's secret plan to launch a search tool in China that would censor results to the specifications set out by state censors, and collect detailed histories of search activity that could be turned over to authorities hunting for dissidents.

But a leaked confidential memo written by Caesar Sengupta -- a manager on "Project Dragonfly" -- reveals that the Chinese search tool has been kept alive by billing its workers to other projects in the organization; and indeed, the code repositories for the Chinese tools have been vigorously updated since then, with 500 check-ins in December and 400 more since then, approximately the same number of commits to those repos while the project was still under active development.

It's not clear what's going on here, and since Google's senior management have refused to publicly commit to canceling the project and staying out of bed with Chinese political censors and secret police, many googlers are worried that they have been hoodwinked -- after all, Project Dragonfly was kept secret from the start in order to avoid an employee backlash.

Google sources with knowledge of Dragonfly said that the code changes could possibly be attributed to employees who have continued this year to wrap up aspects of the work they were doing to develop the Chinese search platform.

“I still believe the project is dead, but we’re still waiting for a declaration from Google that censorship is unacceptable and that they will not collaborate with governments in the oppression of their people,” said one source familiar with Dragonfly.

The lack of clarity from management has resulted in Google losing skilled engineers and developers. In recent months, several Google employees have resigned in part due to Dragonfly and leadership’s handling of the project. The Intercept knows of six staff at the company, including two in senior positions, who have quit since December, and three others who are planning to follow them out the door.
https://boingboing.net/2019/03/04/black ... re-us.html

What Is Google Founder Larry Page's Net Worth?
The co-founder of Google is currently worth over $52 billion. How did he get there and what is his salary?
https://www.thestreet.com/lifestyle/lar ... h-14885116

[seemslikeadream]

Google to pay $1 billion in France to settle fiscal fraud probe
PARIS (Reuters) - Google agreed to pay close to 1 billion euros ($1.10 billion) to French authorities to settle a fiscal fraud probe that began four years ago in a deal that may create a legal precedent for other large tech companies present in the country.

FILE PHOTO: Visitors pass by the logo of Google at the high profile startups and high tech leaders gathering, Viva Tech,in Paris, France May 16, 2019. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo
French investigators have been seeking to establish whether Google, whose European headquarters are based in Dublin, failed to pay its dues to the state by avoiding to declare parts of its activities in the country.

The settlement comprises a fine of 500 million euros and additional taxes of 465 million euros, Google said in a statement.

Google, part of Alphabet Inc, pays little tax in most European countries because it reports almost all sales in Ireland. This is possible thanks to a loophole in international tax law but it hinges on staff in Dublin concluding all sales contracts.

“(The agreement allows) to settle once for all these past disputes,” said Antonin Levy, one of Google’s lawyers, at a hearing in the Paris court.

The combined tax payment is less than the 1.6 billion euros the finance ministry had been seeking from Google after the company’s Paris offices were raided in 2016. At the time, the ministry had ruled out settling with the company.

Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin told Le Figaro newspaper on Thursday the settlement would create a legal precedent and added that talks were underway with several other companies, big and small. He did not specify their names.

European countries have struggled to tax the profits of multinational tech companies derived in their jurisdictions.

France has pushed hard for a digital tax to cover European Union member states, but ran up against resistance from Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

The French government has eventually imposed its own unilateral tax, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to brandish the menace of a retaliatory tax on French wine.

“We remain convinced that a coordinated reform of the international tax system is the best way to provide a clear framework for companies operating worldwide,” Google said.

Reporting by Simon Carraud and Mathieu Rosemain, additional reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Geert De Clercq
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fran ... SKCN1VX1SM

[seemslikeadream]

New Huawei Google Confirmation—And It’s More Bad News For Users
Zak Doffman
GERMANY-CHINA-US-HUAWEI-MOBILE-LIFESTYLE
AFP/Getty Images
Huawei has confirmed that the U.S. blacklist stripping Google software and services from its devices is hurting—and, worse, there is no solution in sight. The Chinese tech giant has sourced alternative options for almost everything included in its consumer devices. But not Google—that’s the bridge too far. And it gets worse—with various workarounds coming to nothing, and any in-house replacement still years away, Huawei has also confirmed it does not have a solution yet in sight. Bad news for users. And bad news for the company, with the likely toll on international sales.

Since May, Huawei has been fending off the impact of a U.S. blacklist that restricts access to its U.S. supply chain. The sanctions stop the company using U.S. hardware or software in new devices. And while the tech giant has launched a program to un-Americanize its supply chain, it accepts that it can replace hardware components but not Google’s core Android software. “We can continue to use the Android platform, since it is open-source,” Huawei’s PR chief Joy Tan told the Financial Times. but we cannot use the services that help apps run on it.”

In reality Huawei had hoped for some political respite, for Trump to soften sanctions outside of core areas of critical infrastructure security. But, despite a few false starts, there has been no softening as yet. Huawei has spent months looking for an audience with the U.S. administration—but Tan told the FT that they have yet to secure a meeting, “either within the Trump administration or on Capitol Hill.”

All this came to a head with the Huawei Mate 30 launch in September. A device that should have prompted countless tech columns lauding its camera, processor and display innovations, instead it had the company fielding endless questions around Google workarounds to prevent the stunning new flagship falling flat in key markets outside China. Short answer—again, despite a number of false starts, there are no Google workarounds available to the millions of normal would-be buyers.

“There are so many Android users in Europe and south-east Asia,” Tan admitted, “they’re so used to these Google applications on top of Android phones.” The really bad news for Huawei’s loyal fanbase is that there isn’t a solution likely to appear any time soon. Google, it seems, is Google.

Shortly after the blacklist was announced, Huawei’s consumer boss Richard Yu announced an in-house operating system he claimed would replace Android on smart devices, running the same apps, providing a seamless way out. But it was misleading. HarmonyOS has now launched—but it is not suited to smartphones, designed instead for larger, simpler IoT devices like smart TVs. There is also the small matter of an Android development community that would need to expand to cover a new OS.

All of which was confirmed by Tan. Developing an Android replacement, she accepted, will take years, assuming it’s even possible. “We have to find alternative solutions for that ecosystem,” she said, “but it’s going to take some time to build.” Despite months of speculation to the contrary, it is now evident that the only current option is open-source Android without Google’s services, including the Play Store and its apps.

Despite the blacklist starting to bite—and it gets worse in November, when current temporary exemptions on certain suppliers ends, Huawei released strong trading results last week. In the first three quarters of this year, the company generated $85 billion in revenues, up 25% year-on-year, signing more than 60 5G contracts with leading global carriers and shipping 185 million smartphones. But almost all of those smartphones either predated the loss of Google or targeted the Chinese market, where Google is not available. The next set of results matters much more.

Huawei isn’t the only company under the hammer—Google itself is being hit hard by the restrictions. Losing access to Huawei and tens of millions of consumers, increasing its dependence on Samsung, losing revenue streams. “Many of our suppliers are talking with the U.S. government,” Tan told the FT, “including Google, I’m sure.”

And so Huawei continues to hope Beijing can secure trade talk concessions from the Trump administration before too many consumers shift elsewhere, at which point it will face the time and cost involved in winning them back.

I am the Founder/CEO of Digital Barriers—a company providing advanced surveillance tech to the defence, national security, counter-terrorism and critical infrastructur
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman ... d47f461a84

Google is in serious trouble, warns top anti-trust lawyer
Google's case is similar to 19 years ago -- when Microsoft was found guilty of exclusionary conduct

By Tom Foremski for Tom Foremski: IMHO | October 18, 2019 -- 14:06 GMT (07:06 PDT) | Topic: Tech Industry
Seth Bloom, former general counsel to the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee and former attorney at the Justice Department Antitrust Division, said Google is "in serious trouble" regarding anti-trust scrutiny from many different places.

Bloom said that the Justice Department took over the FTC investigation of Google, which is rare and a sign of the seriousness of the investigation. Plus, 48 states are investigating Google, and there is scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans. "It's unique to have such scrutiny from both sides," said Bloom.

His remarks were made during a panel discussion organized by the Save Journalism Project -- founded by laid-off reporters. The activist organization blames Google and Facebook for decimating ad revenues for independent newspapers and magazines, resulting in huge numbers of layoffs and endangering a free press.

"Monopolies are not illegal under our antitrust laws, but exclusionary conduct is illegal," he said. US investigators are likely to follow European anti-trust investigations, which resulted in several massive fines totaling more than $9 billion.

Bloom pointed to the success of the EU's investigations that found Google guilty of promoting its own businesses over others, and it received a $5 billion fine.

Bloom has been working on Goggle anti-trust issues since 2011 -- these were the first government hearings on the search giant's business practices.

Microsoft was found guilty of exclusionary conduct, by insisting that its operating system had to be loaded onto PCs and integrating competing software. Google has been insisting that companies licensing its Android operating system have to also load Google apps.

Bloom said there are serious issues with Google banning third-party cookies under the guise of user privacy while it collects all the user data it wants. This is a clear example of exclusionary conduct.

Laura Bassett, the co-founder of the Save Journalism Project, said, "One or two companies should not have the power to cripple the free press in the US."



https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-is ... st-lawyer/