https://theintercept.com/2016/09/07/goog...ists-next/
With the help of another company, google launched a program to redirect searches of things like "how to join Isis" to other things in order to "deradicalize" those people, and they're saying they want to use it to deradicalize American right wing extremists next. No matter what your opinion on ISIS or the KKK is, I think everyone should be concerned about this. These actions show that they are willing to manipulate the information you receive if you have an opinion they disagree with. Right now its being used against ISIS and soon right wing extremists, but what about after that? What if they decide to manipulate search results in favor of a certain political candidate for example? Is it so inconceivable that Google would manipulate access to things like privacy tools? It's no secret they make their living off users' data after all.
People might be fine with the current targets of this program right now, but it creates a very slippery slope and people should think about not only the current uses of this power, but all possible uses that it could be used for in the future.
This is unsettling for more than one reason.
well shit, that is concerning. if they did that though, they would lose customers to Tor or other DarkWeb browsers.
(dark web is not the illegal part of internet, it's the part accessible only via Tor or such.)
What about the left wing? I'd argue they're worse.
Lucky me, I am a Swedish "right wing extremist" so it won't affect me... yet.
(Sep 13, 2016, 01:09 PM)francysol3c Wrote: [ -> ]well shit, that is concerning. if they did that though, they would lose customers to Tor or other DarkWeb browsers.
(dark web is not the illegal part of internet, it's the part accessible only via Tor or such.)
Tor isn't really an alternative to Google. Google is a search engine while Tor is an anonymity network. You could make google searches using the Tor browser, but your searches could still be redirected. The alternative is to use other search engines.
Yo, that's really weird. At first I didn't think much of it. At least they're doing something to combat ISIS, right?
But you raise a valid point, it shows they're capable and willing to do it.
We're so damn reliant on Google; there's a lot of power in their hands, and that's pretty damn scary.
It's racist to disagree with political norms.
George Orwell is rolling in his grave.