From: Ian Miles [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 15 October 2003 16:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: :Power structures and the internet - case of Google
Interesting for cybersoc?
Ian Miles
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: "Robert E. Bowd" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[log in to unmask]>
Copies to: "Franklin Wayne Poley" <[log in to unmask]>,
<[log in to unmask]>,
<[log in to unmask]>, <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Re:Power structures and the
internet //direct democracy // Schwarzenegger
Date sent: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 09:23:48 -0400
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Brad,
The following article, regarding the Google search engine, was
posted
to the moderated PSN (Progressive Sociologists Network) list.
BB
Google Fascists?
From IndyMedia
10-13-3
Google-Watch.org - a site looking into the worry
implications of Google's near monopoly of web search
engines.
Take a look at this...
<http://google-watch.org/>
1. Google's immortal cookie:
Google was the first search engine to use a cookie that
expires in 2038. This was at a time when federal websites
were prohibited
from
using persistent cookies altogether. Now it's years later,
and immortal cookies are commonplace among search engines;
Google set
the
standard because no one bothered to challenge them. This
cookie
places
a unique ID number on your hard disk. Anytime you land on a
Google page, you get a Google cookie if you don't already
have one. If
you
have one, they read and record your unique ID number.
2. Google records everything they can:
For all searches they record the cookie ID, your Internet IP
address,
the time and date, your search terms, and your browser
configuration.
Increasingly, Google is customizing results based on your IP
number.
This is referred to in the industry as "IP delivery based on
geolocation."
3. Google retains all data indefinitely:
Google has no data retention policies. There is evidence
that they
are
able to easily access all the user information they collect
and
save.
4. Google won't say why they need this data:
Inquiries to Google about their privacy policies are
ignored. When
the
New York Times (2002-11-28) asked Sergey Brin about whether
Google ever gets subpoenaed for this information, he had no
comment.
5. Google hires spooks:
Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the
National Security Agency. Google wants to hire more people
with security clearances, so that they can peddle their
corporate assets to the spooks in Washington.
6. Google's toolbar is spyware:
With the advanced features enabled, Google's free toolbar
for
Explorer
phones home with every page you surf, and yes, it reads your
cookie
too. Their privacy policy confesses this, but that's only
because Alexa lost a class-action lawsuit when their toolbar
did the same thing, and their privacy policy failed to
explain this. Worse yet, Google's toolbar updates to new
versions quietly, and without
asking.
This means that if you have the toolbar installed, Google
essentially
has complete access to your hard disk every time you connect
to
Google
(which is many times a day). Most software vendors, and even
Microsoft, ask if you'd like an updated version. But not
Google.
Any
software that updates automatically presents a massive
security
risk.
7. Google's cache copy is illegal:
Judging from Ninth Circuit precedent on the application of
U.S. copyright laws to the Internet, Google's cache copy
appears to be illegal. The only way a webmaster can avoid
having his site cached
on
Google is to put a "noarchive" meta in the header of every
page on
his
site. Surfers like the cache, but webmasters don't. Many
webmasters
have deleted questionable material from their sites, only to
discover
later that the problem pages live merrily on in Google's
cache.
The
cache copy should be "opt-in" for webmasters, not "opt-out."
8. Google is not your friend:
Young, stupid script kiddies and many bloggers still think
Google
is
"way kool," so by now Google enjoys a 75 percent monopoly
for all external referrals to most websites. No webmaster
can avoid
seeking
Google's approval these days, assuming he wants to increase
traffic to
his site. If he tries to take advantage of some of the known
weaknesses in Google's semi-secret algorithms, he may find
himself penalized by Google, and his traffic disappears.
There are no detailed, published standards issued by Google,
and there is no
appeal
process for penalized sites. Google is completely
unaccountable.
Most
of the time they don't even answer email from webmasters.
9. Google is a privacy time bomb:
With 200 million searches per day, most from outside the
U.S.,
Google
amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Those
newly-commissioned data-mining bureaucrats in Washington can
only dream about the sort of slick efficiency that Google
has already achieved.
http://google-watch.org
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/10/278746.html
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Robert E. Bowd" <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: "Franklin Wayne Poley" <[log in to unmask]>;
<[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>;
<[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 5:28
PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Re: direct democracy // Schwarzenegger
> Robert E. Bowd wrote:
> >>From the Utne Reader website:
> [snip]
> > Now, weird things like this do occasionally occur in
elections,
> > and the figures, on their own, are not proof of anything except
statistical
> > anomalies worthy of further study. But in Georgia there was an
> > extra
reason
> > to be suspicious. Last November, the state became the first in the
country
> > to conduct an election entirely with touchscreen voting machines,
> > after lavishing $54m (#33m) on a new system that promised to
> > deliver the
securest,
> > most up-to-date, most voter-friendly election in the history of
> > the republic. The machines, however, turned out to be anything but
> > reliable. With academic studies showing the Georgia touchscreens
> > to be poorly programmed, full of security holes and prone to
> > tampering, and with thousands of similar machines from different
> > companies being introduced
at
> > high speed across the country, computer voting may, in fact, be US
> > democracy's own 21st-century nightmare.
> [snip]
>
> I done been a computer -- OK, a computer *programmer* -- for
> over 30 years now. This essay "rings true". Over 25 years
> ago, Joseph Weizenbaum spoke of reality being defined by
> the behavior of "incomprehensible programs" (_Computer
> Power and Human Reason: From judgment to calculation_).
>
> And somebody saw the obvious in New York magazine
> a couple years ago (yes, I have the citation), when
> he attributed a large part the causation for
> the advent of the "creative accounting"
> in the age of Enron to the way spreadsheet programs
> turn business planning into a computer game.
>
> First do no harm. Amazing how far out of reach such
> a seemingly seemingly modest hope is.
>
> \brad mcormick
>
>
> --
> Let your light so shine before men,
> that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
>
> Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
>
> <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [log in to unmask]
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
>
>
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------- End of forwarded message -------
Professor Ian Miles, IoIR, University of Manchester
http://les1.man.ac.uk/cric/Ian_miles
http://les1.man.ac.uk/prest
IoIR, Harold Hankins Building, Booth Street West, Manchester,
M13 9QH, UK
New publications, Online resources at: http://milesblogs.blogspot.com/
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