google has been in the news quite a bit the past week or two.. here is an article from jan 8th in the globe and mail article entitled "Google, the great disruptor, takes aim ... at everything"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/google-the-great-disrupto...
this was followed by the big story on google in china less then a week later on how they had been hacked and were considering leaving china... the way it was framed was china of course had to be the bad guy with no question on googles role when it comes to issues around privacy...
here is a quote from Eric E. Schmidt chairman and ceo of google taken from wikipedia.
"Schmidt was asked in an interview on CNBC whether Google's users should treat the search engine as a "trusted friend." Schmidt's reply was, in part, "Judgment matters.[...] If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines -- including Google -- do retain this information for some time… it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities."
it seems google collects information on people and saves it for quite some time.. one wonders how much info is collected on those who use this or any other search engine... it would seem google is quite okay with it, but not if it is taken from them by chinese hackers...
glenn greewald has a very good article on the apparent hypocrisy that seems obvious with regard to the posturing of politicians in the usa titled Congress takes a bold stand against surveillance abuses
to make a small quote "The Obama administration issued statements of support for Google, and members of Congress are pushing to revive a bill banning U.S. tech companies from working with governments that digitally spy on their citizens."
one wonders why they can't apply the same to their own country?
worth the read for anyone interested in this issue...
it would seem to me google is not succeeding business wise in china, but would like to take issue over something else and make that the story... this is a nice opening for american politicians to wax poetic while avoiding a discussion on their own support for the broad surveillance abuses they are directly responsible for.... i am sure harper is in total agreement with this agenda as well which is of concern for canucks... having a leader that is supportive of the hanky panky going on to the south of us is a cause for concern... one wonders how much is taking place here in canada that we are completely in the dark on...
as i mentioned in the canwest thread back in december i am not impressed with google and wonder how much we are giving up every time we use it....
