Posts by Dinanziame

Amazing. Staff count up just 2% and Microsoft adds more than £1bn to its UK financials

Re: Loan Charge for big companies

The big companies have unfortunately the means to afford very competent accountants who can prove they are following the law to the letter.

£1bn lawsuit by Google Shopping rival staggers back to feet in London High Court

Re: Monopoly

The scraping should only be opt in.

That's silly. It's like saying users should ask for the consentement of websites before accessing them.

In the first place, it's even sillier to imagine that there is a website admin who knows about the existence of Google and who's unable to set up a robots.txt file. That was a standard way before Google existed.

'Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain' for online ads: It's time for a competition probe, says EU

Be careful what you wish for

"Google is distorting competition by restricting access by third parties to user data for advertising purposes on websites and apps, while reserving such data for its own use."

If you parse this carefully, you realize that the stated issue here is not that Google knows too much about users, but that their competitors don't know as much.

So what do you think will happen? Will Google stop gathering so much data? Or will the EU force them to give* the same data to their competitors?

*(or sell, even. Considering the EU's "solution" for online shopping, it's more likely)

Amazon notices Apple, Google cutting app store commission rates, follows suit

The weird part is that with market-based prices, it would be the reverse — large players would logically have to pay far less than small players, due to economies of scale. The money skimmed by Apple has nothing to do with the cost of running the App store; it is self-evidently a (progressive) tax on those who want to make money in the walled garden. The messages it sends is clear: "we have control of the users, and if you want to make money from those users, we want our share".

UK financial watchdog dithers over £680k refund from Google (in ad credits, mind you) for running anti-fraud ads

Re: Is Google blamed for the existence of online scams?

Good point! Gun manufacturers obviously profit from crime, since criminals buy guns. Maybe the government should stop giving money to gun manufacturers as well?

(I'm sure a massive amount of US criminals drink Budweiser, too...)

Is Google blamed for the existence of online scams?

Sounds like they're saying Google is already profiting somehow from the existence of online scams, so they shouldn't receive yet more money for running ads fighting the problem. Or maybe they're saying Google's so rich that they should run the ads for free as a public service.

Of all the analytics firms in the world, why is Palantir getting its claws into UK health data?

I thought Palantir was acknowledged by all as a private entity spying for the US government...? I wasn't even aware that they had a different business model.

UK competition watchdog begins probe into Apple and Google's total domination of the mobile landscape

The question is not whether it does

The question is what to do about it. Android and iOS totally have a duopoly, but they are actually competing pretty hard already, and whoever tries to create a third system will get shredded. How do you break the situation? Forcing them to accept third-party app stores is good, maybe forcing Google to make its apps available independently of Google Play Services might be another. I'm still not sure that this will be enough.

China arrests over 1000 for using cryptocurrency to help launder proceeds of phone scams

If I was suspicious, I'd say the party leaders have sold all their bitcoins, so it's time to depress the currency so they can buy the dip

NTT slashes top execs’ pay as punishment for paying more than their share of $500-a-head meals with government officials

Curry is a very common dish in Japan, and they have lots of cheap restaurants specialized in curry — Japanese restaurants tend to be specialized in variations of a single dish, so if you go there, everybody must eat some kind of curry. That's not the kind of place to charge $500 a pop, though.

They deserve beer with the curry.

Hong Kong to explore its own digital currency and keep testing China’s Digital Yuan

Hong Kong to attempt something which competes with the mainland solution

That's a bold strategy. Let's see how it works for them.

In this round of 'Real life or Black Mirror episode', drones that hunt down humans by listening to their screams

- So who's funding your research?

- The DoD, why?

Ohio Attorney General asks courts to declare Google a public utility

Change of paradigm

There is an infinity of shades between "just a search engine on the web" and "giant behemoth with way too much power". Laws are not well suited to handle the slow progression from one to the other over several decades. I'm not sure that Google is already at the level that it should be regulated like a public utility, and the question is probably not going to be decided by the courts of Ohio. But if Google keeps gaining in power the way it has until now, they will have to be regulated somehow. There has in fact been several laws that have been passed almost exclusively for Google, from the right to be forgotten to the French digital tax, not to mention the push to update safe harbor and copyright laws.

I think it is an idealistic misconception that laws devolve of simple rules which determine what is right and just. The world is way too complex for simple rules to determine that, and laws are just rules written to prevent issues which threaten the balance of society. Giant corporations like Google have found by chance some kind of loopholes in those rules, and they are threatening the balance of society, so new rules will have to be written.

FBI paid renegade developer $180k for backdoored AN0M chat app that brought down drug underworld

Shades of Bletchley Park

I wonder how often they had information about an upcoming crime and decided to do nothing about it to not jeopardize the operation.

Google ad biz shenanigans smacked down by French competition regulators

Does anyone know details?

Usually, I'm able to understand some of what the issue is, like at this point Google uses that data, or advantages this product that they own instead of that third-party product. Here it seems Google advantaged its technologies in the DFP (Doubleclick for Publishers) and SSP (Supply-Side Platform) servers, but that's all I can find in the ruling or anywhere else. The details of how Google will fix the issues are similarly vague.

Google seems to be taking these rulings in stride, though.

Google, Facebook, Chaos Computer Club join forces to oppose German state spyware

Re: Purism phone

Ouch. I thought it was going to be more expensive, I didn't think it would be so much. I'm afraid they'll have to find ways to make their freedom phone a bit cheaper, otherwise it's unlikely they'll have any success.

Re: Stasi

Yeah, surprised to see this coming from Germany. They normally take that kind of things very seriously.

Chinese app binned by Beijing after asking what day it is on anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre

Re: They're weirdly touchy

I don't think it is the only thing they are touchy about. Taiwan is another hot topic.

I think we can find an explanation in the recent relaxation of the policy on the number of children. It used to be one only, then it was relaxed to two children, and now they've relaxed it to three. Why relax to three? Surely at this point they could just allow any number of children, right? There are very few people who want more than three anyway.

But the reason they don't want to allow any number of children, or they don't want people to talk about Tiananmen, is that it would mean accepting losing control. Admitting a mistake. Having egg on their face. And that is not their way. They think it would make them look weak.

Apple settles with student after authorized repair workers leaked her naked pics to her Facebook page

Re: Details

Actually, yes. Yes, it is better. When choosing companies, I definitely take into account the reputation of the company, and that is not necessarily because I believe they will make less mistakes, but because they will try harder to maintain their reputation.

Re: Details

I assume they mean 5 million times "1 dollar".

It's true that Apple-approved workers can violate your privacy just like anybody else; but only if they are Apple-approved will you receive $5M for your trouble.

Report commissioned by Google says Google isn't to blame for the death of print news

Funnily, this could happen to Google as well. The problem of the newspapers is that the way they benefit to society — news — is distinct from the way they made their money: ads. Somebody came up that was more efficient at ads, and they lost their source of revenue. We regret this, because society really needs the news, otherwise nobody would mind their passing, same as nobody cares that phone books and yellow pages are gone.

Google also benefits society in a way that is completely distinct from the way they make money. Somebody might well show up who would serve ads even better, and it would be Google's turn to cry for help.

The policy of truth: As ransomware claims rise, what's a cyber insurer to do?

What about theft?

Do insurance companies pay up for stolen property? Even if it was left unlocked in a public place?

Four women suing Google for pay discrimination just had their lawsuit upgraded to a $600m class action

Re: I said it before

They have >100k employees, which is easily enough to have some women who were treated unfairly. It's even enough to have a few pockets were women are systematically treated unfairly, despite all the ostensible efforts from the top to root out issues.

So it's well possible that these women have grounds for complaining how they were treated, but it's a very different question to claim that the issues are company-wide... And I would assume that the company have carefully documented their efforts.

Google might still decide to settle just to make the lawsuit go away, though. It's often cheaper than paying the lawyers.

Re: If Google can get away with paying women less than men for the same job...

The women might accept the lower salaries, but there are too few of them applying to fill all positions. Note that Google also sued for discriminating against men when hiring. Then again, they also got sued in a third lawsuit for discriminating against women.

Considering they have over 100k employees, they have plenty of opportunities to discriminate against a lot of people...

Firefox to adopt Chrome's new approach to extensions – sans the part that threatens ad blockers

The previous solution has security issues. Well, at least, that's the excuse Google is using to foist the new thing on their users, and even those who complain about the new thing are not saying anything to the contrary.

AWS Free Tier, where's your spending limit? 'I thought I deleted everything but I have been charged $200'

Not surprising

This is the same company that uses all the tricks in the book to get you to sign on to a "free trial" of Amazon Prime.

In my case, I installed the Kindle app and got to a screen on which the only visible button registered you to a free trial. You had to use the Android back button to refuse. And I only knew I was registered when I called support about the unknown charge on my credit card — the subscription didn't even show anywhere on the Amazon website.

Russian gang behind SolarWinds hack returns with phishing attack disguised as mail from US aid agency

Re: Offshored development in Russia

That's pretty absurd. You don't need offshoring money to build up coding capabilities. And Russia is definitely not the typical target of offshoring either.

Apple is happy to diss the desktop – it knows who's got the most to lose

Re: From the trenches

If you want your laptop to have anything in common with the servers, you've got the wrong kind of servers

Google's 'Ask me anything' on Privacy Sandbox was more about questions than answers

Re: Thanks for the reminder

I used to redirect everything to /dev/null, but it was getting dangerously close to collapsing into a singularity.

Lessons have not been learned: Microsoft's Modern Comments leave users reaching for the rollback button

This is Google Docs comments

I am truly at a loss for words as to why this seemed like a good idea to your development team.

All these features are essentially the way comments work on Google Docs. That was likely the reason for introducing them... Whether this was a good idea or not, that's a different matter.

New IETF draft reveals Egyptians invented pyramids to sharpen razor blades

The RFCs have been known to be very imaginative as well — RFC1149 or RFC2549, for instance.

Apple seeks to junk claim that iOS is an 'essential facility' in legal spat with Epic Games

Re: It is

Not easy? It takes 30 seconds at the most. It's one option in the settings, and the system directs you when you try to install an APK file.

China all but bans cryptocurrencies

That's what Xi said

Activist millionaires protest outside Jeff Bezos' homes to support tax rises for the rich

Re: A useful little test

"I think people should stop throwing garbage in the street"

"If you don't like streets full of garbage, why don't you pick it up?"

$1M a year — is that a lot?

Suppose you're one of these people protesting. You have to make $1M a year to join the group, so suppose you make, oh, $10M a year, every year! Lot of money, huh?

Then lucky you, it will only take a century for you to have a billion dollars... and Jeff Bezos has two hundred billions dollars.

They have a point.

Blessed are the cryptographers, labelling them criminal enablers is just foolish

I'm pessimistic about surveillance, mostly because technology makes it much easier to beach the privacy of people than to protect it.

We've never managed to build a house that is impervious to burglary (at least, not for average people), and people know that and accept the risk. I believe this will be the final situation for privacy breaches.

I'm suddenly reminded that my mother deliberately keeps cheap jewelry in her bedstand, to satisfy burglars, and the real stuff is hidden somewhere else. At the moment, such a deceptive tactic would be called sophisticated in the digital world, but it might well become a common trick used by grandmothers.

Google gets into the international money transfer business, one-way out of the USA

Good

I'm sure Google will charge fees for that, but it can't be worse than Western Union. I know somebody who sends money to his parents in Bitcoin, but that's not a solution which will fit everybody. The more companies offer the service, the better.

Facebook: Nice iOS app of ours you have there, would be a shame if you had to pay for it

Do it! Chicken.

Yeah, that's like the easiest bluff to call in history

Gone in 60 electrons: Digital art swaggers down the cul-de-sac of obsolescence

That's a feature, not a bug

The fact that you end up buying the same thing over and over gives more money to the content creators, and relieves you of money that you obviously don't need. It makes money circulate, which is good for the economy! Are you against the economy? Are you a pinko commie liberal?

Apple won't be sharing revenue guidance for rest of the year, but we can always guess what it'll look like

Re: not giving guidance won't please

That's the kind of doom predictions people have been making about the Apple bubble since 2004

Australia probes app stores, politely suggests Apple and Google could try being nicer and more careful

Better monitoring of apps after review, to stop malicious apps

The funny part is that protecting users from malicious apps is the excuse used for restrictive policies which third-parties claim are deliberately made to prevent them from competing with first-party apps... And the best way to increase competition is to make it easier to download apps from other app stores, which will probably massively increase the amount of malware. Hmmm...

A trip to the dole queue: CEO of $2bn Bay Area tech biz says he was fired for taking LSD before company meeting

Re: CEO of Iterable

CEO++;

Spotlight on Apple, Google app stores: What happened to Tile, Spotify, Match – and that proposed law in Arizona

Third-party app store

I find it curious the big difference between iOS and Android isn't mentioned: it's easy to bypass the Play store and get apps from a third-party app store, or directly from the developer. Are users so inert that it's impossible to be successful without paying the tax?

The makers of Fortnite announced a couple of years back that they would be only available on a third-party app store (or rather, that they wouldn't pay the subscription tax, so they got booted out from the big stores). I'm sure there are ongoing lawsuits about it, but in the meantime I assume Fortnite is still successful?

SpaceX flings another bunch of humans into orbit in reused capsule atop reused booster

Endeavour

Interesting that they didn't call it Columbia or Challenger

Watchdog 'enables Tesla Autopilot' with string, some weight, a seat belt ... and no actual human at the wheel

Re: Hmm ...

The problem with making systems foolproof is that you create better fools.

Google is updating Meet so at least you won't have to look at your hollow, careworn face

Each solution probably has incompatible video feeds... But anyway, it seems impossible to standardize something as basic as chat apps, so it seems unlikely to happen for videoconferencing

Brit Salesforce exec Gavin Patterson becomes transfer target for controversial European Super League

UEFAXIT

It's interesting to see Boris Johnson vowing to fight this. I'd have thought it was right up there with his convictions.

WordPress core contributor proposes treating Google FLoC as a security vulnerability

Funny that people are all up in arms about this floc thing, when third-party cookies, that were clearly worse from all points of view, were allowed the whole time...

We have never given census data to anyone – not even the spy agencies, says the UK's Office for National Statistics

As useful as the EU-US privacy shield

We don't provide it — unless they ask us. We don't allow it — unless the courts say we must. We are transparent — unless the law says otherwise.

Apple's pending privacy clampdown drives desperate marketers to overwhelm domain database

Re: re: easier for advertisers if everyone just gave up on privacy

People are definitely paying less and less for print advertising though.