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Google Chrome Listening In To Your Room Shows The Importance Of Privacy Defense In Depth Yesterday, news broke that Google has been stealth downloading audio listeners onto every computer that runs Chrome, and transmits audio data back to Google. Effectively, this means that Google had taken itself the right to listen to every conversation in every room that runs Chrome somewhere, without any kind of consent from the people eavesdropped on. In official statements, Google shrugged off the practice with what amounts to “we can do that”.It looked like just another bug report. "When I start Chromium, it downloads something."...

If you've ever jokingly wondered if your search or viewing history is going to "put you on some kind of list," your concern may be more than warranted. In now unsealed court documents reviewed by Forbes, Google was ordered to hand over the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and user activity of Youtube accounts and IP addresses that watched select YouTube videos, part of a larger criminal investigation by federal investigators. The videos were sent by undercover police to a suspected cryptocurrency launderer under the username "elonmuskwhm." In conversations with the bitcoin trader, investigators sent links to public YouTube tutorials on...

Google has been putting its thumb on the scale to help Democratic candidates win the presidency in the last four election cycles, during which it censored Republicans, according to a right-leaning media watchdog. The Media Research Center published a report alleging 41 instances of “election interference” by the search engine since 2008. The MRC published a report accusing Google of having “utilized its power to help push to electoral victory the most liberal candidates … while targeting their opponents for censorship.” The report comes weeks after AllSides conducted an analysis which found that news aggregator Google News skewed even more...

A black, deaf Google employee – who had been celebrated at corporate events and on social media as a success story for the search giant’s inclusive workplace – has accused the company of discrimination based on her disability and race.In an explosive lawsuit filed in the US Northern District of California, Jalon Hall — the first and only black, deaf hire at Google, according to Wired — slammed Google for limiting her access to sign-language interpreters months after starting the job.In the complaint, the worker painted Google’s management environment as hostile and racially charged.She cited Google’s manager at the company’s...

This is very scary. Anywhere I stopped for more than a couple of minutes in the last few years is shown as a red dot on a world map. The level of detail is very creepy when you zoom in. I didn't recall being in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles or Seattle . . . but zoom in and I'm at the airport.

Google’s market value plunged by $90 billion on Monday amid controversies surrounding its new generative AI service Gemini. The ultra-woke AI became instantly famous for erasing white people from history, facing widespread mockery for not only its wildly inaccurate images, but also defending pedophilia and Joseph Stalin. Forbes reports that Alphabet stock fell 4.5 percent on Monday to close at $138.75, its lowest price since early January. The selloff came as the company grappled with backlash over accuracy and bias issues with its nascent generative AI service, Gemini. Gemini, which features an AI chatbot and image generator, inaccurately depicted historical...

We've all been laughing at Google and their racist Gemini AI but when you see 'stuff' like this about Israel you realize just how underhanded and even dirty this whole thing really is. Sure, it's fun to mock them and their obvious bias against white people but when you read something like this about Israel and Palestine? They are rewriting history in real-time. Or at least trying to. Take a look. Google’s woke AI Gemini is now claiming that Jews are more violent than Palestinians and ignoring the thousands of people killed by Palestinian terrorism in Israel, including the intifadas.@Google...

Google has Usurped DemocracyWe hear a lot about “election integrity” or lack thereof, particularly around the issues of counting the vote and the ballot box. But the truth is that elections are more likely to be stolen via search engine manipulation effects (SEME).What is SEME?SEME is an abbreviation for the search engine manipulation effect. In a series of randomized controlled experiments, it has been shown that more than 20% of undecided voters can be manipulated into voting one way or the other, by simply manipulating the rankings of search engine results.These studies were published in an article titled “The search...

A group of 20 leading tech companies on Friday announced a joint commitment to combat AI misinformation in this year’s elections. The industry is specifically targeting deepfakes, which can use deceptive audio, video and images to mimic key stakeholders in democratic elections or to provide false voting information. Microsoft , Meta , Google , Amazon , IBM , Adobe and chip designer Arm all signed the accord. Artificial intelligence startups OpenAI, Anthropic and Stability AI also joined the group, alongside social media companies such as Snap , TikTok and X. Tech platforms are preparing for a huge year of elections...

We recently discovered that Google’s ad-serving network is blocking its ads from appearing on a story we published almost exactly three years ago. Google declared that the article violated its terms of service because it contained “Dangerous or derogatory content,” which it defines as anything that: - incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization. - harasses, intimidates, or bullies an individual or group of...

Google spent $26 billion to hide this phone setting from youGoogle goes to great lengths to be your default search engine and keep you from switching. Here’s why you should make your own choice. There’s a setting on your phone and web browser that Google is desperate to keep you from discovering. How desperate? In 2021 alone, Google paid Apple, Samsung and others $26.3 billion to keep it buried. That’s more money each year than McDonald’s makes selling burgers. This setting affects who gets to track your location and watch what you look up online. It affects the usefulness...

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, people fought over voting machines, mail-in ballots, signature validation, etc. Meanwhile, Technocrats disguised as the 800-pound gorilla stole the election well before the first ballot was cast – in fact, 6 million of them. Google has been demonstratively caught, but who cares? Google’s smoke-and-mirror response: “Who, us?

Nothing is so sacred as our Democracy™ — so goes the corporate state media mantra, repeated endlessly in print and on the airwaves of mainstream outlets. It’s the alpha and the omega — never mind what democratically elected politicians do once they’re in office. It’s much more of an end than a means. The obvious exception to the rule, as I and others have documented over the years, is when any candidate with a chance to win might threaten the technocratic ruling class. Related: Trump National Security Adviser: Deep State Will ‘for Sure’ Rig 2024 Election Robert Epstein (no relation...

Google confirmed it will lay off hundreds of staff members who helped recruit and hire employees, as Silicon Valley continues its cost-cutting efforts. The latest cuts come after Google parent Alphabet in January eliminated 12,000 jobs, or about 6% of its workforce, across the company as it grappled with economic uncertainty that hit the company’s bottom line last year, especially its core advertising business. During Google’s July earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company was continuing to slow its “expense growth and pace of hiring.” “We continue to invest in top engineering and technical talent while also meaningfully slowing...

Google has partnered with the United Nations, World Health Organisation and others in a new global censorship tool that was introduced last Monday, according to LaToya Drake, head of Google News Lab.Google News Lab is “a team within the Google News Initiative whose mission is to collaborate with journalists to fight misinformation” and other things. And, the Google News Initiative (“GNI”) “works with publishers and journalists to fight misinformation.” The GNI and its Lab seem to be one and the same thing with the Lab simply being a page on the GNI website.Below are the short descriptions from GNI’s ‘About’...

In a development straight out of a dystopian sci-fi thriller, fast food giant Wendy’s has embarked on a chilling experiment, replacing its drive-through order takers with an AI chatbot powered by Google software. This technological takeover aims to streamline the ordering process by training the AI to understand customer requests and decrease waiting times at the drive-throughs. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, Wendy’s is set to launch this eerie transformation in its home state of Ohio, starting with locations in Columbus. The company plans to implement the change in June, all in the name of shorter lines...

oogle’s ambitious 80-acre “Downtown West” campus project has been put on hold indefinitely as the tech giant faces its most severe cost cuts in its history, leaving San Jose’s downtown area in limbo. CNBC reports that as Google with its most severe cost cuts in history, the internet giant’s ambitious 80-acre “Downtown West” campus project has been put on indefinite hold, leaving San Jose’s downtown area in limbo. The construction project, which was estimated to have an economic impact of around $19 billion, has been put on hold, and there has been no communication with the contractors about when it...

Transwomen should play in separate leagues, so that everyone can compete while ensuring safe and fair competition for women and girls.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down from her post, she announced in an email sent to employees that YouTube posted publicly on Thursday. Wojcicki has been at Google for nearly 25 years but will be stepping back to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.” Neal Mohan, currently YouTube’s chief product officer, will be taking over as head of the video streaming service. After serving as Google’s senior vice president of display and video ads for many years, Mohan joined YouTube in 2015 and has been one of Wojcicki’s primary lieutenants...

Could Google be even worse than Twitter? We don’t use the term ‘bombshell’ lightly. We’ve all been watching as the #TwitterFiles are released bit-by-bit by Elon Musk and his chosen journalists, but this from Kanekoa about the leaked Google files seems like it’s as big of a deal, if not bigger. If nothing else, it just reiterates what Big Tech has been doing (and continues to do) to manipulate what people see, read, believe, and ultimately even how they vote. Used to, when we wrote something like that we’d talk about putting on our tinfoil hats but now, this doesn’t...