I know a lot of people are upset about the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 doesn't have a SD card slot and this right here is exactly why I have a 2TB backup drive in my house and it's also the reason I tell people not to use any type of online cloud storage..
Microsoft sues US over secret demands for customer data
Apr 14, 2016 07:29 PM
By BRANDON BAILEY
AP Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Microsoft sued the U.S. government for demanding access to user emails or online files in secret, saying a provision of a 1986 law that authorities use for such undisclosed searches is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit is the latest clash over privacy rights in the digital age. Law enforcement officials want freedom to view a treasure trove of information - including emails, photos and financial records - that customers are storing on electronic gadgets and in so-called "cloud" computing centers.
Microsoft says the U.S. Justice Department is abusing the decades-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which allows authorities to obtain court orders requiring it to turn over customer files stored on its servers, while in some cases prohibiting the company from notifying the customer. Microsoft says those "non-disclosure" orders violate its constitutional right to free speech, as well as its customers' protection against unreasonable searches.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said the government is reviewing the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in Seattle federal court.
One former federal official was critical of Microsoft's position, saying it could lead to warning "child molesters, domestic abusers, violent criminals and terrorists that they're being investigated."
The non-disclosure orders must be granted by a judge who has concluded that "notifying these individuals will have an adverse result, which could include messing up an investigation or even endangering the life or safety of individuals," said Daniel "D.J." Rosenthal, a former National Security Council and Justice Department attorney.
But Microsoft argues the law sets a vague standard for granting secrecy around digital searches. Authorities are required to disclose most search warrants for information stored in filing cabinets, safes or other physical locations, the company noted in its court filing.
"At the end of the day, when you are being investigated by the government, you should know about the investigation so you can prepare a defense," said Mark Jaycox of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.
Microsoft said government demands under the ECPA law are increasing in number for a variety of investigations, including white-collar cases.
"We appreciate that there are times when secrecy around a government warrant is needed," Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith said in a statement. "But based on the many secrecy orders we have received, we question whether these orders are grounded in specific facts that truly demand secrecy. To the contrary, it appears that the issuance of secrecy orders has become too routine."
The Redmond, Washington-based company says authorities used the law to demand customer information more than 5,600 times in the last 18 months. In nearly half those cases, a court ordered the company to keep the demand secret.
Although some orders expired after a period of time, Microsoft said the gag orders were indefinite in about 1,750 cases, "meaning that Microsoft could forever be barred from telling the affected customer about the government's intrusion."
As more people store data online, Microsoft argued in its lawsuit that the government is exploiting that trend "as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations."
In an interview, Smith said the company decided to sue the Justice Department after a case where authorities threatened to hold Microsoft in contempt when it sought to contest a particular secrecy order.
"That caused us to step back and take a look at what was going on more broadly," he said. "We were very disconcerted when we added up the large number of secrecy orders we've been receiving."
While the lawsuit specifically challenges ECPA's secrecy provision, Congress has been debating a number of reforms in response to criticism that it's outdated in various ways.
The House Judiciary Committee this week approved a bill to amend the law so authorities would need a warrant to see email and other digital files that have been stored online for more than 180 days. Currently the law allows access with a subpoena, which can be obtained more easily by satisfying a weaker legal standard.
But a recent amendment to the bill would still allow non-disclosure orders lasting up to six months, which could potentially be extended. Microsoft's Smith said he's not optimistic that Congress will pass any reforms this year.
Microsoft rival Apple has been waging a high-profile legal battle over the FBI's attempt to compel that company's help in obtaining data stored on iPhones.
"It's part of the same trend," said Alex Abdo, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. He said tech companies "have gotten the message loud and clear from the American public, that privacy matters."
The source link to this is here.
http://m.wtvm.com/wtvm/db/376055/content/8llRzBFa
is a good point - but you should also never use a VPN hosted by any of the "five eyes" countries, or all of the "fourteen eyes" either, also you wouldn't run a Samsung account, use Google services such a Gmail, Facebook, or any other myriad of (especially) US based privacy invasive "free" services online.
Privacy is very important. But people forget that their free Gmail account does come at a cost, so does Facebook (loathe that platform).
You cannot just stop using a cloud based storage service (personally I use Tresorit - end to end encryption and a zero knowledge service) and we all use Android devices here (MM privacy settings are a step in the right direction, but also reading and learning about what you can do to make sure your phone isn't the information leak Google would prefer it to be is a wise thing to do)
Change your email to something offering zero knowledge and end to end encryption such as Protonmail or Tutanota. Create a "throwaway" email and account for Google Play and their services. Always use the Google Play gift cards rather than a credit card for purchases.
Don't use Google Maps period. Use Open Street Maps instead.
Use DuckDuckGo as your search engine, never Google.
Find out what a warrant canary is and check them for all the services you use regularly!
Use a firewall on your device. Use Tor on your device. Don't ever use Chrome, use Firefox and make sure you adjust the privacy settings hidden inside it.
As you can see, there is a lot to consider and do if you value your privacy, not just cloud storage.
All of this is easily searchable on the internet so it pays to read.
To paraphrase Glen Greenwald, many people will say they have nothing to hide, well if that is the case send me your login details to your email accounts and online social media accounts. No one has ever taken up that offer......
geekygrl said:
is a good point - but you should also never use a VPN hosted by any of the "five eyes" countries, or all of the "fourteen eyes" either, also you wouldn't run a Samsung account, use Google services such a Gmail, Facebook, or any other myriad of (especially) US based privacy invasive "free" services online.
Privacy is very important. But people forget that their free Gmail account does come at a cost, so does Facebook (loathe that platform).
You cannot just stop using a cloud based storage service (personally I use Tresorit - end to end encryption and a zero knowledge service) and we all use Android devices here (MM privacy settings are a step in the right direction, but also reading and learning about what you can do to make sure your phone isn't the information leak Google would prefer it to be is a wise thing to do)
Change your email to something offering zero knowledge and end to end encryption such as Protonmail or Tutanota. Create a "throwaway" email and account for Google Play and their services. Always use the Google Play gift cards rather than a credit card for purchases.
Don't use Google Maps period. Use Open Street Maps instead.
Use DuckDuckGo as your search engine, never Google.
Find out what a warrant canary is and check them for all the services you use regularly!
Use a firewall on your device. Use Tor on your device. Don't ever use Chrome, use Firefox and make sure you adjust the privacy settings hidden inside it.
As you can see, there is a lot to consider and do if you value your privacy, not just cloud storage.
All of this is easily searchable on the internet so it pays to read.
To paraphrase Glen Greenwald, many people will say they have nothing to hide, well if that is the case send me your login details to your email accounts and online social media accounts. No one has ever taken up that offer......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of those thing's I don't use and the rare times that I do use them I have account names that mean nothing and have no important information in them. Any important emails that I get are sent to my own personal encrypted mail server and I don't bother with VPN connections because Tor Browser is good enough for me. This is also the reason I don't use Microsoft Windows at all and use Linux instead because when something gets installed on my system it's because I did it but with Microsoft Windows it's to easy to get viruses and whatnot and I've yet to ever have that happen to my nix. I also loathe Facebook and I rarely ever get on there because it seems like people detail their entire day every day from the time they wake up until they go to bed and that's a treasure trove to anyone who is looking for information on you! But let's face it though, there really is no way to 100% truly secure your information online because if someone is determined and smart enough they'll get what they want but we don't have to make it easy for them to get it!!
Same here - but I am always surprised at the other people out there that complain about privacy but never do anything about it, or don't know anything about how to fix it...
Unfortunately I am locked into Windows 10 as I have a SP4.....until the touchscreen and the pen works with Linux it is pointless to move OS's - I do have it locked down and no longer sending any telemetry as much as humanly possible!
I spend a lot of time being mobile so setting up my own email servers or use something like OwnCloud (isn't there a vulnerability with that at the moment?) to sync my phone isn't practical as it would require more than a SP4!
Agree that if they really want to know what you are up to they will, but why make it easy eh?!
geekygrl said:
is a good point - but you should also never use a VPN hosted by any of the "five eyes" countries, or all of the "fourteen eyes" either... <snip> Protonmail or Tutanota
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, basically, I agree with what you said, and I've looked at both those providers. Protonmail is based in Switzerland, and Tutanota in Germany. Um... given the Snowden revelations (and other things) can we actually depend on any German company? Is Switzerland even secure anymore?
Maybe I'm being silly, ignorant, or whatever about this. Got any thoughts on this?
Related
First of all - people are paranoid and won't feel comfortable with it. Now this to top it off:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/10/t-mobile-we-probably-lost-all-your-sidekick-data/
LOL
so basicaly, people were storing their precious data on a server, which failed!!! to store your data on a server is a fail, cause the server can fail!! its a fail of failing fails!!!
so can anyone count the phrase 'fail' in my post, or will it be a faill of fails!!
FAIL!
Anyway, it's like storing your data on a (easy to lost) flashdrive without backing it up on the PC. Hahahaha .
Top 7 Seven Mission Statements of Technology Businesses:
Statement #1
Offer a service to customers and make absolutely certain that the physical equipment is built without redundancy & recovery in mind.
Statement #2
Offer a service to customers and indicate that redundancy is in place. Omit the part about the lack of a sound disaster recovery plan.
Statement #3
Avoid using redundancy at the physical, file system, and logical layers. Make absolutely certain to avoid implementing a clustered infrastructure solution.
Statement #4
Convince customers that their data is and will remain secure and that privacy is of upmost importance. Provide complete unrestricted access to national security agencies and all telemarketing companies so as to provide subscription revenue. Brand it as data mining for improved customer experience.
Statement #5
Ensure that Term Of Service absolve the company of any wrong doing or disclosure as a result of incompetence or an opportunity to make more revenue
Statement #6
When customers call to complain, promptly place them in a waiting queue for no less than one hour with a prompt disconnection once the hour has elapsed.
Statement #7
Have customers prepay for a non-existent service/product ... and then have customers pay additional fees to have the service developped. As an added bonus, have them pay for being part of the Alpha, Beta, Release Candidate phases of the service/product. And most important, charge a renewal fee right when the service is actually launched.
^above post: too long, did not read
edit: o.k. i read it now, it makes sense. i'd rather like your opinion straight out though! analyzing text makes it feel like english class... :-(
cloud computing is like the steam games?
leobox1 said:
cloud computing is like the steam games?
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Click to collapse
lol, no..steam has some cloud computing feature built-in.. but its for your game setting info i believe. Theres some game service suppose to come out that using cloud computing to stream games to your computer instead of running it natively on your hardware...
in a nutshell, whats cloud computing ?
leobox1 said:
in a nutshell, whats cloud computing ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Application and data stored and runs on a web server and not your pc and you use it via a web browser and maybe flash.
HotMail is a Cloud Computing application and was one long before the term Cloud Computing was invented.
100 bucks + a free of charge month for compensation?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/12/t-mobile-offers-sidekick-users-olive-branch-100/
Considering the age of the sidekick user base that's not a bad deal. Maybe some contacts lost, but nothing vital, I guess.
The question is, would a businessman or any person with important data on their phone entrust it to a cloud computing storage service? I don't think so.
The BBC now have an aritcle about this incident here.
An interesting article that I came across today; bolded some points that struck me as dangerous grounds ...
Sound Check by Alan Cross
February 12, 2010 12:30 a.m.
Back in November, I wrote about ACTA, the secret anti-counterfeiting trademark agreement involving Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the EU and nine other countries. Representatives have been meeting behind closed doors for two years to hammer out a treaty that will inevitably affect every single person on the Internet.
Yet there has been almost zero transparency. None of the draft texts have been made public and those outside the inner circle are bound by tough non-disclosure agreements.
This doesn’t mean there haven’t been some leaks.
Aside from measures to fight counterfeiting, there have been discussions about a worldwide “three strikes” rule. Accused (not caught, proven or convicted) of file-sharing music three times by an aggrieved rights holder, and you’re banned from the Internet. For life.
Internet service providers and telecoms would be liable for copyright infringements by their users. To avoid prosecution, that means they’ll have to find some way of sniffing through all the data — YOUR data — that passes through their pipes. And even though you may have a legitimate right to, say, ship a music file from point A to point B, there’s the potential for red flags at the ISP. Accused three times (not caught, proven or convicted) and you’re done. Not just with your current ISP, either. They’ll be required by international law to publish your name to an Internet no-fly list that will prevent you from ever having an Internet account in your name ever again.
And it gets better. Within the document is a second called Border Measures. There’s the real possibility that some border guard will have the power to make you prove all those music files on that iPhone in your pocket are, in fact, not pirated. Can’t do it? Bye-bye, iPhone. Oh, and you could be charged and fined.
This is more than just file-sharing for stopping fake Louis Vuitton bags. It’s about privacy, civil liberties, and legitimate use of the Internet for commerce and innovation.
The seventh round of negotiations is underway in Mexico — secretly, of course, partly because U.S. President Barack Obama has declared this an issue of national security. Same thing for the next round in April in New Zealand.
And because this is an international treaty, it’ll just be rubber-stamped into law. No public debate.
Be informed. Read what the Electronic Frontier Foundations says at eff.org/issues/acta.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sources:
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/com...ifetime-ban-from-the-internet-it-could-happen
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/comment/article/509570--the-orwellian-plan-to-track-your-music
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/06/02/copyright-bill-clement-montreal.html?ref=rss
http://www.eff.org/issues/acta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
Updates:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqE8SuLOQxo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2XPiqhN_Ns&annotation_id=annotation_910879&feature=iv
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=210429284986#!/group.php?gid=210429284986&ref=nf
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10467337-38.html
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/your-life-will-some-day-end-acta-will-live-on.ars
http://news.google.com/news/more?um=1&cf=all&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=d7q9CZNjAmTXtvMz0xI_8sjNmJ6cM
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6275575&postcount=40
* EDIT *
FYI; the EFF is a good starting point for those who decide they want to do something - they may also be able to recommend an equivalent organization in your country.
thats pretty messed up. if it happens in the us, im sure itll end up in the supreme court and declared unconstitutional. this is way above what the powers the constitution granted to the government. after all, the government needs consent of the people or else its not a democracy anymore.
Unfortunately, since ACTA is considered to be an International treaty, it can be passed into law without public debate.
... and that's just the "tip of the iceberg". All one has to do is imagine the scenarios and since most of the treaty is being kept confidential, we don't know how far the reach and impact of the treaty will be. Here's a few other ongoings that most folks aren't aware of:
Rein In ACTA: Tell Congress to Open the Secret IP Pact
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=420
In The News: Cellular User Privacy at Risk
http://www.eff.org/press/mentions
Control is arriving to internet...
Wow,
It is amazing about this article.
I really hope this won't succeed, as this trespasses the limits of control and privacy.
As next meeting will be here in México, I´ll try to fond out more locally...
Wow, definately hope this is a No Go
If this has any truth to it, yet another reason why i hate obammer
I get the feeling though that for every ISP that followed the no-fly list, another ISP like Google's new high speed internet would let someone on that list connect.
It reminds me of "Home Taping Is Killing Music. And It's Illegal" campaign.
And a opposing campaigns called,
"copyright is killing music - and it's legal"
"Home Taping is Skill in Music"
"Home Taping Is Killing the Music Industry: Killing Ain't Wrong"
Hope this doesn't become a law. If so, we may have to migrate to Iran (where there is no copyright law).
zizou417 said:
I get the feeling though that for every ISP that followed the no-fly list, another ISP like Google's new high speed internet would let someone on that list connect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's say for the sake of argument that this treaty is passed ...
As the majority of services are paid via credit card or pre-authorized bank debit, it would seem to me that the person would never be able to get another Internet service under their true identity. Speculating further, the "no-fly" list would likely contain name, address, location, financial, and possibly other government information that establishes a person's unique identity - passport, birth certificate, etc. Some questions that come to mind:
Would this mean that the person would be banned from using cellular or other dial-up means to connect to the Internet?
Should the person use someone else's identify, would they be exposed to criminal prosecution and would the person who's identity was used be banned as well?
Taking it one step further; let's say some disgruntled person or company decides they want to shutdown a competitor, website, or other person, all they need to do is report the key stakeholder anonymously to the authorities (or governing body) a sufficient number of times so as to exceed the threshold ... and voila, banned! In a matter of a few calls, a person such as the owner of a website could be banned from accessing the Internet therefore taking down their website in the process.
Furthermore, countries could be "strong-armed" into adopting the treaty if they wish to conduct commerce over the Internet with countries that are part of the treaty.
I think, it is less likely that some thing like this treaty coming into existence.
I do not know about other developed countries. But, in developing and underdeveloped countries, virtually everyone uses the internet to share the music,movie,software.... So, if you ban all the people form the internet what business these ISPs and e-commerce people are going to do?
And you know, the major market are these countries due to their population. So, developed countries doesn't want to jeopardize their market.
May be, a stricter law to curb such copyright infringement can be applied. But, I hardly see effectiveness of these laws in developing and underdeveloped countries.
(May be China is more happier to apply such law and ban everyone form the internet. Which it is already doing with different means ).
What a "Brave New World" we live in..
hmmmmm, interesting read. Don't agree with this to be honest, but not much I can really do....... I wonder if this could be applied to spammers
raghu13uk said:
I think, it is less likely that some thing like this treaty coming into existence.
I do not know about other developed countries. But, in developing and underdeveloped countries, virtually everyone uses the internet to share the music,movie,software.... So, if you ban all the people form the internet what business these ISPs and e-commerce people are going to do?
And you know, the major market are these countries due to their population. So, developed countries doesn't want to jeopardize their market.
May be, a stricter law to curb such copyright infringement can be applied. But, I hardly see effectiveness of these laws in developing and underdeveloped countries.
(May be China is more happier to apply such law and ban everyone form the internet. Which it is already doing with different means ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed; but how does one determine a true copyright violator? And obviously, it won't stop at audio and/or video. And what is the purpose of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) then? Was that act not supposed to be for this purpose? And how many companies/people are aware that the ACTA treaty is in the process of being finalised behind "closed doors"?
Of additional interest is the provision to empower border security such that they can search any/all electronic equipment. As the article points out, this means that no information is confidential. So if one happens to encounter a border security person having a "bad day", one could be faced with confiscation of their cellular phone or laptop as a result of not being able to prove that the information found on the device was legitimately paid for (ex: audio, video, application). Attempting to retrieve a wrongly confiscated item is costly both legally and personally.
Additionally, there are numerous articles on the Internet that already highlight the fact that most authorities have the means to bypass most encryption algorithms so as to extract the contents of hard drives and cellular devices. In some countries, it is even a federal offense to use certain depths of encryption - for the longest time, France only permitted 40-bit encryption.
Imagine this scenario;
You're browsing the Internet while waiting for your flight. You happen to connect to a compromised website which redirects you to several pornographic websites. An announcement over the PA system announces that your flight has been moved to a different gate and you realize that the gate is at the opposite end of the airport.
You close your laptop, stuff it in the bag and rush to the new gate just in time to see that people are boarding the plane. You board the plane, stow you laptop and later during the flight, you turn it on to do some work and then stow it away again forgetting to clear your history and browser cache.
When you arrive at your destination, border security instructs you to provide your electronic devices for scanning. During the scan, they discover the browser cache full of pornographic images.
Now what?
Imagine this other scenario;
What happens if this treaty provides large corporations with the power they require to close down websites that are considered hostile to their revenue or websites that provide information on how circumvent mechanisms that are in their products? And what happens if the treaty empowers the authorities to obtain all of the trace-back information of all of the people who frequented such a website so as to ban/prosecute them?
If they do this, i'm gonna sue someone important!!!
I would NOT want to see this thing passed. It's our internet, and they don't have the right to kick us off of it. Watch this video on the topic here, this one is more likely to happen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqE8SuLOQxo
What happened to that law that stated we could use any type of music/media as long as we don't make a profit on it?! this is so wrong imo. Sorry saw this thread and had to join.
I would much rather see tax dollars going to matters of national security, and helping the job market right now, then pay for big expensive servers that dedicate their time to crawling through everyone's internet, filtering out everything that's deemed "bad." What if you have say, a niece or nephew, that comes over to your house frequently and gets on the computer. They in turn download music, or go a a forbidden website, or something stupid like that, more than a few times. Bam! Your banned for life because of your brother or sister's child's mistake? I would be furious.
I can not see this going into effect without a HUGE public uproar. From us, as consumers, but also from the ISP companies. They will start taking HUGE revenue losses because of this.
Oh, and the border filtering... you've GOT to be freakin kidding me, right? Before I say any of this, let me make it perfectly clear that I am no racist. I either love, or hate people based on their personalities and actions. Okay, not a racist? Understood. Okay. Why not, instead of filtering electronic devices through the borders, they protect the borders a little better? I'm all of immigration, let them all come over, if they want, but make them do it the legal way. That's all. If that technology filter is applied at our borders, then I can see a huge uproar from a lot of racists, and non-racists, in the Texas, California areas.
There are way too many holes in this. It'd be like trying to hold water in a mesh container. In it's current state, there's no way this will be effective.
2012: The Year The Internet Ends
This will happen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2XPiqhN_Ns&annotation_id=annotation_910879&feature=iv
Badwolve1 said:
If they do this, i'm gonna sue someone important!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You won't be alone, let's make it a Class Action lawsuit!
I'm sure there will be plenty of constitutional lawyers ready to pounce on this one...
The word Google has become synonymous with online search as it refers to the world’s best search engine, and it has developed a platform for huge free web-based applications that now we use every day to perform tasks, or simply for entertainment. The company now is a multinational corporation with a huge budget and a pre-determined strategy to grow bigger. But how does Google does it?
Google does it simply with its interest in providing what everyone needs and the way they want it to be. Unlike the other corporates that sells good or sometimes excellent products for a high price, Google’s answer to this is simply, a high quality “product as a service” and the best part it’s for free. However, the company also does sell online advertisement spaces. The ads are served also in their propriety services like Gmail and Docs etc.
Presenting an operating system for the small gadgets and making it free is a wise way to approach the market, and to get the approval of the experts the company made it based on Linux, the developers’ favorite. The project was first at the hands of a small company, but Google acquired it and financed the project so it can become a reality in order to expand in the telecommunication industry. The smart thing was including all of its services alongside new ones into the software, this making it getting closer to its users and getting the feedback with not much of an effort.
Google has developed some of its key services out from university labs. At first they would be tested for a long time internally, and then when it’s near perfection it’s released to the world like Gmail. The service was in beta phase for five years before it became stable. It’s is a pressure-free developing style, a style that divers it from others. While other companies have deadlines and a releasing schedule, Google doesn’t, simply because there is no one to report to. Its external contracts are different; Google doesn’t create a product for another corporate. Having so will enforce the company to work in a narrow area and with predetermined way. On the contrary it simply creates and presents the product for the other companies to work with.
Its employees are encouraged to work on project that interests them directly. This corporate culture cannot be simply copied. If it was, we would see someone doing it. It’s also what divers it from other companies and it’s what defines it now. Making the workspace fun and interesting is to maintain the current staff and attract new “brains”, the ones who might have an idea of a project that can turn out to be the next big thing.
Google maintains its services up and running with its dependency on ads; this was at first and might still be at a certain degree. But its market share and its focus on many fields might define the future of the corporate. Sole dependency on ads online is definitely not a good strategy and Google has figured that out already, with its expanding plans to other areas, first, ten years ago when it acquired Blogger the famous blogging platform. After that YouTube, with its 4 Billion videos streamed daily, alongside it’s cloud music service that has shown great threat to competitors with its simplicity. And lately it’s 12.5 Billion bid on Motorola Mobility.
It’s clear that Google continues to grow with its unique way of managing its business. It’s is what will define the corporate future, alongside our lifestyle that has been influenced and still does. We used to read printed books; we now read them on small devices to save the huge space the books occupy. There are many examples of how Google has enhanced the way we perform our tasks and activities and made them easy for us, and this is the reason why Google is so succeful.
Unagi said:
Unlike the other corporates that sells good or sometimes excellent products for a high price, Google’s answer to this is simply, a high quality “product as a service” and the best part it’s for free.
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Click to collapse
NOTHING is free. I am as guilty as most of the people for taking their 'free' candy, but it will someday bite us on the ass.
Not sure when, but it will happen. And it won't be pretty!
And believe me they are not doing it to be good corporate citizens.
Making money online is easy
Unagi said:
The word Google has become synonymous with online search as it refers to the world’s best search engine, and it has developed a platform for huge free web-based applications that now we use every day to perform tasks, or simply for entertainment. The company now is a multinational corporation with a huge budget and a pre-determined strategy to grow bigger. But how does Google does it?
Google does it simply with its interest in providing what everyone needs and the way they want it to be. Unlike the other corporates that sells good or sometimes excellent products for a high price, Google’s answer to this is simply, a high quality “product as a service” and the best part it’s for free. However, the company also does sell online advertisement spaces. The ads are served also in their propriety services like Gmail and Docs etc.
Presenting an operating system for the small gadgets and making it free is a wise way to approach the market, and to get the approval of the experts the company made it based on Linux, the developers’ favorite. The project was first at the hands of a small company, but Google acquired it and financed the project so it can become a reality in order to expand in the telecommunication industry. The smart thing was including all of its services alongside new ones into the software, this making it getting closer to its users and getting the feedback with not much of an effort.
Google has developed some of its key services out from university labs. At first they would be tested for a long time internally, and then when it’s near perfection it’s released to the world like Gmail. The service was in beta phase for five years before it became stable. It’s is a pressure-free developing style, a style that divers it from others. While other companies have deadlines and a releasing schedule, Google doesn’t, simply because there is no one to report to. Its external contracts are different; Google doesn’t create a product for another corporate. Having so will enforce the company to work in a narrow area and with predetermined way. On the contrary it simply creates and presents the product for the other companies to work with.
Its employees are encouraged to work on project that interests them directly. This corporate culture cannot be simply copied. If it was, we would see someone doing it. It’s also what divers it from other companies and it’s what defines it now. Making the workspace fun and interesting is to maintain the current staff and attract new “brains”, the ones who might have an idea of a project that can turn out to be the next big thing.
Google maintains its services up and running with its dependency on ads; this was at first and might still be at a certain degree. But its market share and its focus on many fields might define the future of the corporate. Sole dependency on ads online is definitely not a good strategy and Google has figured that out already, with its expanding plans to other areas, first, ten years ago when it acquired Blogger the famous blogging platform. After that YouTube, with its 4 Billion videos streamed daily, alongside it’s cloud music service that has shown great threat to competitors with its simplicity. And lately it’s 12.5 Billion bid on Motorola Mobility.
It’s clear that Google continues to grow with its unique way of managing its business. It’s is what will define the corporate future, alongside our lifestyle that has been influenced and still does. We used to read printed books; we now read them on small devices to save the huge space the books occupy. There are many examples of how Google has enhanced the way we perform our tasks and activities and made them easy for us, and this is the reason why Google is so succeful.
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ravisinghal20 said:
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It will cost me more than 25 cents in electricity just deleting all of the spam generated from signing up to worthless sites. And 5 cents for showing a referral 1000 times? Lol. I think bums on skid row wouldn't waste their time on that!
BTW, Nice segue into a plug for your site.
I know a number of people in the Cyber Security field and through packet sniffing and data monitoring it is well known that Google is the worst offender about letting third parties take information, Microsoft is a close second followed by Apple, whom claims they don't share any information from IOS.
Obviously, we like rooting our devices and the big three try to stop us from doing it. Then you have things like Ubuntu for mobile devices and then VPN's. But how do you protect your data these days?
Hey there, long time no chat in this forum
So, with all the recent censorship scandal by big companies such as Twitter and Facebook, many 'suspicious' things have been happening recently. For example, with Twitter's suspension of Trump's personal account, people has been moving on to Parler (a somewhat more "free-speech" oriented alternative to Twitter). But yesterday, Google removed the app from the Play Store and Apple threatened with doing the same if they don't adjust their censorship policies.
Of course, non-jailbroken iPhone users are screwed with the app and have to use the web version, but Android users are still able to download it via 3rd-party app stores and websites such as apkpure. And considering this last bit I ask you:
Do you think Google would be willing to make Android closed source to enforce their censorship policies in the future?
Hope to read yout thoughts on this one
no lol calling it censorship is pretty dumb imo
Don't see it on the horizon...
affigne said:
Hey there, long time no chat in this forum
So, with all the recent censorship scandal by big companies such as Twitter and Facebook, many 'suspicious' things have been happening recently. For example, with Twitter's suspension of Trump's personal account, people has been moving on to Parler (a somewhat more "free-speech" oriented alternative to Twitter). But yesterday, Google removed the app from the Play Store and Apple threatened with doing the same if they don't adjust their censorship policies.
Of course, non-jailbroken iPhone users are screwed with the app and have to use the web version, but Android users are still able to download it via 3rd-party app stores and websites such as apkpure. And considering this last bit I ask you:
Do you think Google would be willing to make Android closed source to enforce their censorship policies in the future?
Hope to read yout thoughts on this one
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I really don´t think so, but I think (in the future) that using certain features and having full access to the device will be more complicated, such as Huawei's devices, you literally need to register and get their permission to get the bootloader unlocked.
What I see in the recent censorship is that it's all about Trump and the extremists following him, and this demonstrates two things:
1) Twitter is clearly not supporting Trump as it's becoming more and more out of control.
2) Twitter always said it was for free speech, but when they saw that free speech is what gathered the BuffaloMan and his fellows at Capitol Hill, well, then free speech became a danger.
So if you plan to overthrow some african or asian government, they will let you do it, but if you try to overthrow the government of US, then it becomes a problem
In any case, Twitter, Google, Apple, and all the other companies are private, independent companies, with their own regulations. In my opinion there's nothing wrong if they block someone or some products in their platform or store. It's like a golf club banning a member or a shop owner not selling anymore a product.
If Trump wants to start his own social network, he can do it, unless what he does on the site is against US laws.
So, in conclusion, i'm not worried about Android becoming closed source, as this wave of censorship regards a specific group of people, and also because being open source is what made Android's wide success possible. And while Android is successful, Google can push their already closed source Play Services on the devices.
I hope not....
When I saw this thread title, I feared that this was recent news and the ROM scene was over. When I read this thread, I took a sigh of relief even if the post is complete nonsense. To answer your question: No, Android is not going closed source and nobody is censoring anybody. If Android were to go closed source it would have to find an entirely different kernel to use as the Linux kernel is open source and open sourceness is a key principle for Linux-based OSes. And Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc are all private companies and get to decide who can and can't use their platforms.
I don't think that Android will be a closed source. Actually I believe Android market will grow. I even decided to create an app both for Android and iOS. Not just for iOS. Easy to do so with modern technologies https://itmaster-soft.com/en/cross-platform-app-development Sooo I'm sure Android will be fine