PressTV Debate: Google's Attack on the Freedom of Speech
This 21:09 minute video debate has beenc republished from Attack on Freedom of Speech (19/4/19) | PressTV (but see note below - Ed).
Facebook thought police deleted Syrian Girl's account - what you can do about it
In Syrian Girl's Facebook Ban Linked to Russia-gate Twitter Purge? - an Exclusive Interview (30/9/17) | Russia Insider, Charles Bausman reported that Facebook had blocked SyrianGirl's account after she had criticised Kurds.
Syrian Girl, the Australian activist, Youtuber, and social media powerhouse, tweeted on Thursday evening (EST) that her Facebook account has been blocked for her exposure of fraud during the Kurdistan referendum. She had 75,000 followers.
She also has 70,000 followers on Twitter, and 75,000 subscribers to her excellent Youtube channel.
She gave Russia Insider (RI) an exclusive interview on Friday, explaining that Facebook acted without warning, (which is unusual - usually they give people a chance to correct whatever is upsetting the censors), and so far have not responded to emails.
She speculated that perhaps her page had been caught up in the anti-Russian Twitter / Facebook purge currently unfolding. (Twitter removed 200 Russian accounts that targeted Facebook during election - USA Today)
…
This of course follows the evidence-free beat-up that alleged Russian interference somehow caused American voters to elect Russia's allegedly favourite candidate Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton the chosen favourite of the American corporate elite, including Zuckerberg himself.
As revealed by Julian Assange of Wikileaks, "Zuckerberg Colluded with Hillary Clinton Campaign":
Mark Zuckerberg's claims this week that Facebook was fair to Donald Trump during the 2016 election just took another serious blow.
The Facebook founder and CEO personally met with Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta a year before the 2016 election, according to an email released by Wikileaks.
The news comes a day after Wikileaks' Julian Assange dropped a bomb onto the heads of Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, alleging they colluded with Hillary Clinton's 2016 election campaign.
Assange Tweeted Thursday, linking the emails sent back and forth between John Podesta and Sandberg which reveal Sandberg wanted Clinton to win "badly." Assange said the women met privately numerous times during Clinton's campaign.
Assange included one email from Sandberg to Podesta, Clinton's campaign manager, which is particularly damaging in which the Facebook executive pledged to help elect Clinton.
What can we do about it?
This outrageous attempt at thought control and censoring of political information by Zuckerberg, as well as Google, YouTube and Twitter, shows that in a true democracy, the news media upon which we all depend, must be taken out of the hands of the corporate owners and placed in the hands of the people.
Alternatively, rival newsmedia and social media that are run transparently, and with a charter to promote a free contest of ideas, should be established.
This could easily be done with public funds and with popular support within purportedly democratic countries like Australia, France, Germany and the UK. Should this not occur, then alternatives could be set up. One such alternative is the community-owned minds.com.
Another alternative is for sovereign countries like Russia and Iran, which are independent of United States' hegemony, set up their own alternatives to Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. If they were also run transparently and with a charter to promote a free contest of ideas, they would very quickly draw away much of the current audiences of Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Such an initiative would surely cost those countries only a fraction of what they are currently obliged to spend on defence.
In fact, Russia has already set up Yandex an alternative to Google. Hopfeully, Yandex will soon be expanded to include more in English. Hopefully, also, other alternatives to Google, Facebook, and Twitter will soon be established.
Over time their need for defence expenditure would be greatly reduced as more and more people in Western countries are able to see through the lies of the corporate newsmedia. We could well see the end of war altogether.
See also: "Russia Threatens to Ban Facebook" (2/10/17) | Russia Insider by Tyler Durden – Russia demands data of Russian citizens be kept on servers physically located in Russia, @caityjohnstone/the-push-to-fight-foreign-propaganda-is-the-same-as-government-book-burning-bba16a128835">"The push to 'Fight Foreign Propaganda' is the same as government book burning" (28/9/17) | Medium by Caitlin Johnstone.
Where is the love in Google's sacking of James Damore?
James Damore was the man who sent a memo in Google in which he suggested that maybe the low participation of women in tech areas was because women in general had less desire to work in those areas. For this he was sacked.
Now for purposes of this article I am not so interested in whether he was right or wrong. I am interested in how he was treated. I think how James was treated in this matter reflects a far deeper malaise within our culture; that malaise is a lack of love and concern for others. If we really want to create a better society, with less conflict, hatred and violence, then we really need to consider deeply why people are punished and to what end.
Do people and organisations in our society seek to punish others as revenge? Or to ‘silence’ them? Either motive is selfish and destructive. Revenge as a motive is just pure hatred and selfishness. Silencing people on the other hand is what organised churches used to do to heretics, and what despots like Stalin did to dissenters. Both were monsters. Do we really want such monsters around today?
So what should be the purpose of punishment? In a system of love any punishment or similar consequences for actions should have the intention of helping the person at fault. The aim of criminal punishment should be to reform offenders, only the unreformable should be exiled, or otherwise separated from their community, for the safety of the community. In all other cases every effort should be made to educate and assist the person towards improvement.
So how did Google act in the case of James? They acted as any despot would, they sought to silence James by sacking him and ‘exiling’ him from Google’s community. Why would they do this? Well I would suggest firstly because they have no love for James, or perhaps anyone else. Think about it – if someone in your family wrote something like that – would you exile them? Punish them with the loss of their income? Only a family with no love for their children would treat their child like that – fully grown or not. Now Google I suspect also had selfish reasons for wanting to get rid of James – and it is a fact that selfishness in its worst forms is a lack of love for others. Google, and the tech area in general have had a bad reputation in relation to the treatment of women. In light of this it seems that Google are seeking – at least some claim they are – to signal the ‘virtue’ of the company for purely profit oriented motives.
When someone, or some organisation, picks on someone like this it is encumbant on others to speak in defence of the victim. Particularly when the victim is an individual. Groups have the benefit of many voices and mutual support, but individuals are vulnerable, and so need others to defend them. Without us supporting each other in this way we have the ‘law of jungle’; the strong can victimise the weak. Such an action as Google’s is a bully’s action. And unless we can stand against such behaviours civilisation means nothing; it is not an adjective we can apply to our society. But yet we see the absence of love and human support for others again and again – we see it with the treatment of refugees, we see it with the treatment of the homeless, and we see it with many individuals: Damore, Assange, Snowden and Manning.
I ask again – would a loving parent treat their own child like this? Would they stand by and watch others treat their child like this? Or would they have patience and tolerance in regard to their perceived faults and transgressions? Then how can we stand by and allow other people’s children to be treated this way?
Watch James explain what happened on youtube.
You can read James' memo here and also Google's public response.
Here's The Full 10-Page Anti-Diversity Screed Circulating Internally At Google ( it is not actually not quite in full - diagrams and hyper links to his references have been removed. The actual complete document is available here).
If you are interested in the argument about whether he was right or not, here is New York Times article on this.
Do Changes to Google's Privacy Policy reflect surveillance of gmail content?
Yes, yes. We all know that transmitting private information over the internet isn't safe. And we understand that Google and other search engines use cookies to monitor where we like to go on the internet. Yes, gmail probably wasn't air-tight, but I didn't realise that google was actually monitoring my email for commercial purposes - or that's what they seem to be telling me.
"Make the ads that you see on the web more interesting
Many websites, such as news sites and blogs, partner with us to show ads to their visitors. To see ads that are more related to you and your interests, edit the categories below, which are based on sites that you have recently visited. Learn MoreYour interests are associated with an advertising cookie that's stored in your browser. If you don't want us to store your interests, you can opt out below. Your ad preferences only apply in this browser on this computer. They are reset if you delete your browser's cookies."
Hi,
I'm one of candobetter.net's editors. I don't know all that much about the internet and maybe some of what I have understood is wrong, but I'm going to put this out here for discussion.
Targeted ad in my gmail box
A couple of days ago I found an ad from a health insurance company that was aimed at immigrants to Australia seeking to comply with Australian regulations for new immigrants. It turned out that it was sent to me by google because their study of my email had led them to believe that I might be a good target for this kind of advertising. They added that, if I didn't like the ad (I dislike unsolicited, invasive ads on principle), I could view and manage my 'ads preferences' and block this particular advertiser if I did not wish to receive more ads from him.
Although I had realised that gmail could be viewed by others, I had naively believed that gmail would not actually read or monitor my emails so closely that they could try to tailor advertising to my profile.
Is Google automatically shrinking my search options?
For some time, also, I had been bothered by google search's limitation on my searches to the English language and an unsought preferencing for www.google.com.au. Since I read several languages and frequently search on foreign sites, it bothered me that my searches were being so arbitrarily restricted and without any say-so from me.
Maybe a year or two ago I realised it was hard to get out of www.google.com.au. I seemed to lose that precious access to the many different perspectives of different countries of the world which had been mine from about 1998 or so.
I felt like I was being corralled.
I had also begun for some time to wonder if, when I did a search on google, I was getting results like anyone else, or if these results were being filtered for me specially. As a researcher I am far more interested in getting a wide take on what is out there rather than having my own prejudices catered to (with the exception of unsolicited ads in my email boxes, where my preference is for no ads, period, as they say in the US).
My latest discovery of an ad in my email-on-line box made me want to ask google questions about its privacy policy and the impacts of its personsalisation of services.
Google doesn't recognise multilingual clients?
I also wanted to ask why it had become difficult to access other languages. There used to be an option that you could select to do a search for information in any language. This has now disappeared or become inaccessible to me.
Unfortunately, google users have to write a snail mail letter to some place in the United States if they want to ask Google anything about their privacy practices. Frankly I would like the answer more quickly. So, instead, I am writing this article. Maybe I will get more information and ideas from other people and maybe Google will respond to this article.
Ultimately, I was reassured when I went to look at my profile and other information that Google has compiled on me (from this computer at any rate). They had got just about everything wrong, from my name and my sex to the state that I live in, and they seemed to have overlooked my chief interests - or maybe my chief interests simply are not that remunerative in the commercial sense, so they don't get picked up.
I like Google. I'm really impressed at what they have achieved and at the services they provide, but I am now looking at other options for emails.
Below is a preview of Google's next privacy policy. Hopefully they won't mind me reproducing it here:
Preview: Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy will be effective from 1 March 2012 and will replace the existing Privacy Policy. Please see our overview page for additional details.
Last modified: 1 March 2012 (view archived versions)
There are many different ways for you to use our services – to search for and share information, to communicate with other people or to create new content. When you share information with us, for example by creating a #toc-terms-account">Google Account, we can make those services even better – to show you more relevant search results and ads, to help you connect with people or to make sharing with others quicker and easier. As you use our services, we want you to be clear how we’re using information and the ways in which you can protect your privacy.
Our Privacy Policy explains:
- What information we collect and why we collect it.
- How we use that information.
- The choices we offer, including how to access and update information.
We’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible, but if you’re not familiar with terms, such as cookies, IP addresses, pixel tags and browsers, then read about these #toc-terms">key terms first. Your privacy matters to Google, so whether you are new to Google or a long-time user, please do take the time to get to know our practices – and if you have any questions, contact us.
Information that we collect
We collect information to provide better services to all of our users – from basics, such as which language you speak to more complex things, such as which ads you’ll find most useful or the people who matter most to you online.
We collect information in two ways:
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Information that you give us. For example, many of our services require you to sign up for a Google Account. When you do, we’ll ask for #toc-terms-personal-info">personal information, such as your name, email address, telephone number or credit card number. If you want to take full advantage of the sharing features that we offer, we might also ask you to create a publicly visible Google Profile, which may include your name and photo.
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Information that we get from your use of our services. We may collect information about the services that you use and how you use them, such as when you visit a website that uses our advertising services or you view and interact with our ads and content. This information includes:
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Device information
We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers and mobile network information, including phone number). Google may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account.
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Log information
When you use our services or view content provided by Google, we may automatically collect and store certain information in #toc-terms-server-logs">server logs. This may include:
- details of how you used our service, such as your search queries.
- telephony log information, such as your phone number, calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls.
- #toc-terms-ip">Internet protocol address.
- device event information, such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL.
- cookies that may uniquely identify your browser or your Google Account.
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Location information
When you use a location-enabled Google service, we may collect and process information about your actual location, such as GPS signals sent by a mobile device. We may also use various technologies to determine location, such as sensor data from your device that may, for example, provide information on nearby Wi-Fi access points and mobile towers.
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Unique application numbers
Certain services include a unique application number. This number and information about your installation (for example, the operating system type and application version number) may be sent to Google when you install or uninstall that service or when that service periodically contacts our servers, such as for automatic updates.
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Local storage
We may collect and store information (including personal information) locally on your device, using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches.
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Cookies and anonymous identifiers
We use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit a Google service, which may include one or more #toc-terms-cookie">cookies or #toc-terms-identifier">anonymous identifiers sent to your device. We also use cookies and anonymous identifiers when you interact with services that we offer to our partners, such as advertising services or Google features that may appear on other sites.
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How we use information that we collect
We use the information that we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones and to protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content – such as giving you more relevant search results and ads.
We may use the name that you provide for your Google Profile across all of the services we offer that require a Google Account. In addition, we may replace past names associated with your Google Account, so that you are represented consistently across all our services. If other users already have your email or other information that identifies you, we may show them your publicly visible Google Profile information, such as your name and photo.
When you contact Google, we may keep a record of your communication to help resolve any issues that you might be facing. We may use your email address to inform you about our services, such as letting you know about upcoming changes or improvements.
We use information collected from cookies and other technologies, like #toc-terms-pixel">pixel tags, to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our services. For example, by saving your language preferences, we’ll be able to provide you our services in your preferred language. When showing you tailored ads, we will not associate a cookie or anonymous identifier with sensitive categories, such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation or health.
We may combine personal information from one service with information, including personal information, from other Google services – for example, to make it easier to share things with people you know. We will not combine DoubleClick cookie information with personally identifiable information unless we have your opt-in consent.
We will ask for your consent before using information for a purpose other than those set out in this Privacy Policy.
Google processes personal information on our servers in many countries around the world. We may process your personal information on a server located outside the country where you live.
Transparency and choice
People have different privacy concerns. Our goal is to be clear about what information we collect, so that you can make meaningful choices about how it is used. For example, you can:
- Review and control certain types of information tied to your Google Account by using Google Dashboard.
- View and edit your ad preferences, such as which categories might interest you, using the Ad Preferences Manager. You can also opt out of certain Google advertising services here.
- Use our editor to see and adjust how your Google Profile appears to particular individuals.
- Control who you share information with.
- Take information out of many of our services.
You may also set your browser to block all cookies, including cookies associated with our services, or to indicate when a cookie is being set by us. However, it’s important to remember that many of our services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For example, we may not remember your language preferences.
Information that you share
Many of our services let you share information with others. Remember that when you share information publicly, it may be indexable by search engines, including Google. Our services provide you with different options for sharing and removing your content.
Accessing and updating your personal information
Whenever you use our services, we aim to provide you with access to your personal information. If that information is wrong, we strive to give you ways to update it quickly or to delete it – unless we have to keep that information for legitimate business or legal purposes. When updating your personal information, we may ask you to verify your identity before we can act on your request.
We may reject requests that are unreasonably repetitive, require disproportionate technical effort (for example, developing a new system or fundamentally changing an existing practice), risk the privacy of others or would be extremely impractical (for instance, requests concerning information residing on backup tapes).
Where we can provide information access and correction, we will do so free of charge, except where it would require a disproportionate effort. We aim to maintain our services in a manner that protects information from accidental or malicious destruction. Because of this, after you delete information from our services, we may not immediately delete residual copies from our active servers and may not remove information from our backup systems.
Information that we share
We do not share personal information with companies, organisations and individuals outside Google unless one of the following circumstances applies:
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With your consent
We will share personal information with companies, organisations or individuals outside Google when we have your consent to do so. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any #toc-terms-sensitive-info">sensitive personal information.
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With domain administrators
If your Google Account is managed for you by a domain administrator (for example, for Google Apps users) then your domain administrator and resellers who provide user support to your organisation will have access to your Google Account information (including your emails and other data). Your domain administrator may be able to:
- view statistics regarding your account, such as statistics regarding applications that you install.
- change your account password.
- suspend or terminate your account access.
- access or retain information stored as part of your account.
- receive your account information in order to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
- restrict your ability to delete or edit information or privacy settings.
Please refer to your domain administrator’s privacy policy for more information.
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For external processing
We provide personal information to our affiliates or other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
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For legal reasons
We will share personal information with companies, organisations or individuals outside Google if we have a belief in good faith that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:
- meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
- enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations.
- detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues.
- protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Google, our users or the public, as required or permitted by law.
We may share aggregated, #toc-terms-info">non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners, such as publishers, advertisers or connected sites. For example, we may share information publicly to show trends about the general use of our services.
If Google is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, we will continue to ensure the confidentiality of any personal information and give affected users notice before personal information is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
Information security
We work hard to protect Google and our users from unauthorised access to or unauthorised alteration, disclosure or destruction of information that we hold. In particular:
- We encrypt many of our services using SSL.
- We offer you two-step verification when you access your Google Account and a Safe Browsing feature in Google Chrome.
- We review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorised access to systems.
- We restrict access to personal information to Google employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations. They may be disciplined or their contract terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.
Application
Our Privacy Policy applies to all of the services offered by Google Inc. and its affiliates, including services offered on other sites (such as our advertising services), but excludes services with separate privacy policies that do not incorporate this Privacy Policy.
Our Privacy Policy does not apply to services offered by other companies or individuals, including products or sites that may be displayed to you in search results, sites that may include Google services or other sites linked from our services. Our Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices of other companies and organisations that advertise our services and that may use cookies, pixel tags and other technologies to serve and offer relevant ads.
Enforcement
We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Policy. We also adhere to several self-regulatory frameworks. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that we cannot resolve with our users directly.
Changes
Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent. We will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of Privacy Policy changes). We will also keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy in an archive for your review.
Specific product practices
The following notices explain specific privacy practices with respect to certain Google products and services that you may use:
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