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| | ====== GAFAM ====== |
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| **Note:** this page is a //work in progress//. | **Note:** this page is a //work in progress//. |
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| Companies mentioned in the acronyms above are of course by no means the only bad actors out there. There’s Twitter, Reddit and many others. They’re just not as huge as GAFAM. | Companies mentioned in the acronyms above are of course by no means the only bad actors out there. There’s Twitter, Reddit and many others. They’re just not as huge as GAFAM. |
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| ====== Corporate abuse ====== | See also: [[https://gafam.info/|GAFAM poster campaign]]. |
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| | ===== Corporate abuse ===== |
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| The key problem with these giant companies is that there are only a few of them, yet they control substantial part of the internet. If you doubt that could be true, read following articles by [[https://www.nytimes.com/by/kashmir-hill|Kashmir Hill]]: | The key problem with these giant companies is that there are only a few of them, yet they control substantial part of the internet. If you doubt that could be true, read following articles by [[https://www.nytimes.com/by/kashmir-hill|Kashmir Hill]]: |
| //Privacy International// (a British NGO), has created a [[https://privacyinternational.org/corporateabusetimeline|timeline of corporate abuse]], a relatively small collection of evidence that these companies are up to no good. | //Privacy International// (a British NGO), has created a [[https://privacyinternational.org/corporateabusetimeline|timeline of corporate abuse]], a relatively small collection of evidence that these companies are up to no good. |
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| ====== Facebook ====== | ===== Google ===== |
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| [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica|Cambridge Analytica scandal]] was particularly well covered by the mainstream media. But it wasn’t the only one --- there’s even a page called [[https://dayssincelastfacebookscandal.com/|days since last Facebook scandal]] that records evidence of Facebook’s wrongdoings. | Google started as one of several search engines. It grew over the years, finally becoming the giant it is now. |
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| | Further reading: |
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| | * [[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/google-testing-its-controversial-new-ad-targeting-tech-millions-browsers-heres|Google Is Testing Its Controversial New Ad Targeting Tech in Millions of Browsers. Here’s What We Know]] |
| | * [[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/11/google-contributions-climate-change-deniers|Revealed: Google made large contributions to climate change deniers]] |
| | * [[https://nitter.nixnet.services/element_hq/status/1355290296947499013|Google have suspended Element in the Play Store without notifying us]] |
| | * [[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html|A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal]] |
| | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)|Project Dragonfly]] |
| | * [[https://fuckoffgoogle.de/google-is-evil/|Google is Evil]] |
| | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google|Criticism of Google]] |
| | |
| | ==== Alternatives ==== |
| | |
| | * Install [[https://lineageos.org/|LineageOS]] on your Android phone and be free from "Google Apps" that you can never trust with your data. |
| | * Use different search engines, never get used to just one of them. |
| | * [[https://duckduckgo.com/|DuckDuckGo]], |
| | * [[https://qwant.com/|Qwant]], |
| | * [[https://searx.space/|SearXNG]]. |
| | * Consider searching directly where you expect to find the information. For example, you wouldn't search for recipes in a movie database. |
| | * It makes sense to just go to your movie database of choice and search for the movie title, instead of asking Google to do the same for you. |
| | * Many websites offer their own search engines. Some of them even use [[https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSearch|OpenSearch]] to make it easier to add them to your browser! It's very comfortable and easy to use. |
| | * Register a mail account with a [[https://www.privacytools.io/privacy-email|privacy-respecting provider]]. |
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| | ===== Amazon ===== |
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| | This large company is well known for: |
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| | * treating its workers terribly: |
| | * [[wp>Amazon worker organization]]; |
| | * avoiding paying taxes |
| | * [[https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/15/tech/amazon-federal-income-tax/index.html|Despite record profits, Amazon didn’t pay any federal income tax in 2017 or 2018]], |
| | * [[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/02/new-study-deems-amazon-worst-for-aggressive-tax-avoidance|New study deems Amazon worst for 'aggressive' tax avoidance]]; |
| | * shady practices, see [[reading:2023:w26#pluralistictiktok_s_enshittification_21_jan_2023|Cory Doctorow's essay about "Enshittification"]]. |
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| | ===== Facebook ===== |
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| | [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica|Cambridge Analytica scandal]] was particularly well covered by the mainstream media. But it wasn’t the only one --- there was even a page called [[https://dayssincelastfacebookscandal.com/|days since last Facebook scandal]] that recorded evidence of Facebook’s wrongdoings, but it went offline. However, there's still the [[https://framagit.org/pksl/dayssincelastfacebookscandal.com|repository]] that was used to document those scandals. |
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| At the time of writing (2021-04-11), most recent Facebook scandal was data of 530 million Facebook users had been made publicly available. A company that encourages people to share this information should process it responsibly, right? Well, Facebook doesn’t think so. According to their [[https://about.fb.com/news/2021/04/facts-on-news-reports-about-facebook-data/|statement]], everything is fine because the data wasn’t stolen by hackers --- it was merely collected by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping|scraping]]. | At the time of writing (2021-04-11), most recent Facebook scandal was data of 530 million Facebook users had been made publicly available. A company that encourages people to share this information should process it responsibly, right? Well, Facebook doesn’t think so. According to their [[https://about.fb.com/news/2021/04/facts-on-news-reports-about-facebook-data/|statement]], everything is fine because the data wasn’t stolen by hackers --- it was merely collected by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping|scraping]]. |
| * [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2020/09/30/will-facebook-sit-on-the-evidence-of-the-genocide-against-the-rohingyas/|Will Facebook Sit On The Evidence Of The Genocide Against The Rohingyas?]] | * [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2020/09/30/will-facebook-sit-on-the-evidence-of-the-genocide-against-the-rohingyas/|Will Facebook Sit On The Evidence Of The Genocide Against The Rohingyas?]] |
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| | ==== Alternatives ==== |
| ===== Alternatives ===== | |
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| If you enjoy being in touch with your friends online or want to be up–to–date with interesting events nearby, there are always other tools you can try. | If you enjoy being in touch with your friends online or want to be up–to–date with interesting events nearby, there are always other tools you can try. |
| * **monitor interesting websites** --- sometimes, there won’t be an RSS feed or any other way to find out about interesting events happening nearby. But that doesn’t have to be a problem. Your friends or news portals may be writing about them, so you can open up local news websites and search for interesting stuff. | * **monitor interesting websites** --- sometimes, there won’t be an RSS feed or any other way to find out about interesting events happening nearby. But that doesn’t have to be a problem. Your friends or news portals may be writing about them, so you can open up local news websites and search for interesting stuff. |
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| ====== Google ====== | ===== Apple ===== |
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| Google started as one of several search engines. It grew over the years, finally becoming the giant it is now. | Company known to drive the lust for eye-candy gadgets sold at insane prices produces them in factory that needs "suicide nets", to prevent workers from jumping out of windows. |
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| The company is known for tax evasion, | At the same time, the company prevents its devices from interoperating seamlessly with other devices, e.g. using non-standard cable sockets. |
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| Further reading: | References: |
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| * [[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/google-testing-its-controversial-new-ad-targeting-tech-millions-browsers-heres|Google Is Testing Its Controversial New Ad Targeting Tech in Millions of Browsers. Here’s What We Know]] | * [[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/18/foxconn-life-death-forbidden-city-longhua-suicide-apple-iphone-brian-merchant-one-device-extract|Life and death in Apple’s forbidden city]] |
| * [[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/11/google-contributions-climate-change-deniers|Revealed: Google made large contributions to climate change deniers]] | * [[https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-factorys-wall-e-robots-and-suicide-nets-revealed/|Apple factory's Wall-E robots and suicide nets revealed]] |
| * [[https://nitter.nixnet.services/element_hq/status/1355290296947499013|Google have suspended Element in the Play Store without notifying us]] | * [[https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/19/23924549/jon-stewart-apple-ai-china-cancel|Jon Stewart’s Apple TV Plus show ends, reportedly over coverage of AI and China]] |
| * [[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html|A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal]] | |
| * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)|Project Dragonfly]] | ==== Alternatives ==== |
| * [[https://fuckoffgoogle.de/google-is-evil/|Google is Evil]] | |
| * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google|Criticism of Google]] | Instead of buying another fancy gadget from this greedy corporation, consider: |
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| | * Extending the lifetime of the devices you've already got. (For example, you can [[https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/degrowth/#see-what-corporations-are-really-doing-and-act-upon-it|downgrade your macOS]].) |
| | * Buying [[https://www.fairphone.com/|FairPhone]], a phone that's designed with sustainability in mind. (Many of the components it's built of can be replaced, so you can fix your device instead of buying a new one, leaving less waste.) |
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| | ===== Microsoft ===== |
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| | Microsoft has been long enough in the business to learn avoiding spotlights. But they've done their share. They've developed strategy known as [[wp>Embrace, extend, and extinguish]] (of course now followed by others). |
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| | References: |
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| | - [[https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/13/microsoft_alleges_china_behind_espionagefocused/|Microsoft admits unauthorized access to Exchange Online, blames Chinese gang]] |
| | - [[https://www.techradar.com/pro/the-us-state-department-told-microsoft-that-emails-in-its-cloud-were-hacked-last-month|The US State Department told Microsoft that emails in its cloud were hacked last month]] |
| | - [[https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/21/microsoft_key_skeleton/|Stolen Microsoft key may have opened up a lot more than US govt email inboxes]] |
| | - [[wp>Criticism of Microsoft]] |
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| | ==== Alternatives ==== |
| | |
| | * **use free operating system** --- depending on your experience with computers, you can choose either **Linux** or something more advanced (like a flavour of BSD), |
| | * announce looking for a job on fediverse, |
| | * register a mail account with a [[https://www.privacytools.io/privacy-email|privacy-respecting provider]]. |
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