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Richard Stallman's personal site.

https://stallman.org

For present political commentary, see the daily political notes.

RMS's Bio | The GNU Project

Reasons not to make use of Google

Nonfree software program required

- Google is implementing a universal net DRM system. Making it even a bit of worse, Google will management the software and the information. But do not get distracted by evil particulars - the worst thing about this scheme is that it's DRM.- *Amazon, Google father or mother Alphabet and Microsoft are being sued over imagesused to train their facial recognition applied sciences.*- In general, most Google companies require operating nonfree Javascript code. When you refuse to run that (for instance, by running LibreJS), you will see that you should not use those services.- Even making a Google account requires operating nonfree Javascript software program sent by the site.- Google Groups requires the use of nonfree Javascript software program, so please don't host your discussions there.- Google Docs requires nonfree Javascript code to edit a doc, and even to have a look at one with the standard URL. IceCat comes with an add-on that permits learn-only entry to some paperwork on Google Docs. That alleviates among the harm finished when others use Google Docs to host tasks, but does not alter the conclusion that you should not do so.- Around 2011, Google Maps labored without operating Javascript code. Then something broke: the page labored high-quality besides that the map did not appear. Nowadays, nothing whatsoever seems if Javascript is disabled. Use OpenStreet Map!- Youtube.com requires nonfree software (Javascript code) for regular use of the location; after modifications Google made in August 2017, nothing is visible in a typical Youtube web page without working its nonfree Javascript code. For my very own freedom's sake, I do not run the nonfree Javascript software sent by Youtube. I counsel you to refuse likewise; what's immediately at stake is your personal freedom. However, these days I can access Youtube, by doing it not directly via the invidious proxies, whose welcome site is invidio.us. This works even when the browser has Javascript disabled, and implements downloading. However, Google is threatening to assault these proxies. To avoid leading other folks astray, please don't refer to movies utilizing the host identify youtube.com or its aliases. Instead, make a hyperlink to invidio.us or one of many associated proxy sites. Lead folks to what is sweet, not to what's bad! Just ensure that not to decide on a proxy that's "protected" by Cloudflare, since that sends its own nonfree software program. This fashion of referring might be fail-safe: it might cease to work, however it will most likely not begin main folks to run nonfree software program. There can be a Firefox add-on to bypass that Javascript code. IceCat comes with that add-on by default. But that won't overcome the blockage of entry through Tor. If Google defeats the invidio.us proxies, I can ell you ways I cannot reply. I will not surrender to youtube's nonfree software and surveillance. I get pleasure from getting access to the music and video there, however I cannot do foolish or desperate issues to keep that entry. You should not both! You do not need a special "platform" to submit an audio or video on the web. You can put up an audio or video file on any web site. Just put the file on the location and hyperlink to it as if it were an bizarre web page. All graphical browsers can handle that.- Google censored installation of Samsung's advert-blocker, saying that blocking adverts is "interference" with the sites that advertise (and surveil users through advertisements). The advert-blocker is proprietary software, just like this system (Google Play) that Google used to deny access to install it. I would refuse to have both of them on my laptop. Using a nonfree program offers the owner power over you, and Google has exercised that power.

Surveillance

To identify yourself to a Google service is a grave error. - Google shops a listing of all purchases a consumer has made that in any means point out the consumer's a gmail account. A consumer can delete purchases from this listing, but only one buy at a time. Then that purchase disappears from the list that the user sees. Whether it remains in another record, we have no idea, but I'd count on Google to reply that query with doubletalk. The article talks about what Google cites as its motive for doing this, but the motive is irrelevant - because it's not an excuse.- Google's alarm system, "Nest Secure", seems to have contained a microphone all alongside - however only just lately began listening.- Google "sanitizes" its whole search logs, then publishes them; but it surely declines to describe the process of "sanitization", and there's proof that users can be tracked by them.

The article also mentions two-factor authentication, which in and of itself may very well be a useful technique (though I've learn that crackers can now defeat it), however has the flaw of requiring a cell phone. My rule #2 for digital security is not to have a cell phone.

- Gmail was planned from the beginning as a large surveillance system, to make psychological profiles not only of Gmail users but of everyone who sends mail to Gmail users.- Google quietly mixed its ad-monitoring profiles with its shopping profiles.- Google has discovered a way to track most credit card purchases within the US, even those not done by a cellphone, and correlate that with individuals's online actions.

Google can't do either facet to me, since I pay cash and don't carry a mobile phone, and it doesn't know what websites I take a look at.

- Google Play sends app builders the private details of customers that set up the app. Merely asking users' "consent" for this isn't enough to legitimize that. We know that the majority users have given up on studying simply what they're "consenting" to, and the reason is that they're accustomed to being advised, "If you need to use this service, you will need to consent to blah blah blah." To really protect folks's privateness, we must cease Google (and other corporations) from getting this private info in the primary place!- Google shops an enormous quantity of knowledge on each user. This may embrace, along with the user's search history and promoting profile: - A timeline of the consumer's location all through every day- Data on the utilization of non-Google phone apps- 'Deleted' emails and information uploaded to Google Drive

Facebook and Google joined with ISPs to defeat a privacy initiative in California. Collecting the many ways Google is involved with US government surveillance, abroad and in the US, amounts to fairly a bundle.

Google invitations folks to let Google monitor their cellphone use, and all web use of their houses, for an extravagant payment of $20.

This malicious performance isn't a secondary aspect of a program with another goal; this is the software program's sole objective, and Google says so. But Google says it in a means that encourages most individuals to ignore the main points and remain unaware of the extent of the spying. Anyway, mere consent doesn't legitimize huge surveillance.

Amazon and Google need "smart" gadgets to report all activity to them.

In different phrases, in case you have a "sensible" (read "spy") lightbulb with that proposed function, and tell an Amazon or Google listening gadget about it, thenceforth any time you switched it on or off regardless of how, it might send a report to Amazon or Google.

Even immediately, the only strategy to make "smart" products secure is to make sure they can't connect to anyone else's systems.

Another piece of Google's surveillance capitalism: when stores mail receipts to a gmail.com account, Google figures out and data who bought what.

I think that the shop itself shouldn't get this data, which is why I all the time pay money and by no means give my name.

*Google faces lawsuit over tracking in apps even when users opted out.*

- Google cuts off accounts for users that resell Pixel phones. They lose entry to all of their mail and paperwork stored in Google servers below that account. It ought to be illegal to place any "terms of service" on a physical product. It should even be illegal to shut an account on a service with out letting the person download whatever was stored there. These occasions provide one other reason why colleges must by no means ask a scholar to make use of a service account linked to the scholar's name.

Censorship

- Amazon and Google have cut off domain-fronting, a function used to enable folks in tyrannical international locations to reach communication programs that are banned there.- French blogger Claims YouTube Tried to Censor Juncker Interview.- Google has agreed to carry out particular censorship of Youtube for the government of Pakistan, deleting views that the state opposes. This can help the illiberal Pakistani state suppress dissent.

- Youtube's "content material ID" automatically deletes posted videos in a means copyright regulation does not require.- YouTube has made personal offers with the copyright business to censor works that are truthful use. More information.

- Google shut off Alexa O'Brien's Google Drive account, denying her access to it, because her reporting on Chelsea Manning's trial included copies of al-Qa'ida propaganda that was presented as proof.- Google is deleting porn artists' porn videos from their own private accounts, quietly and mysteriously.

Never trust a distant storage firm to keep anything but a spare backup copy. When you store that, put your recordsdata into an archive and encrypt it in order that the corporate can't inform what's in them - not even their file names.

- Vox attorneys got Youtube to take down criticisms of a video printed by Vox, and threaten the critics with punishment, too.

The videos were nearly absolutely truthful use, but Youtube determined towards the critics anyway. This exhibits how Youtube's general submission to the copyright trade constrict's individuals's rights.

Miscellaneous

- Google is a tax dodger. Of course, it's not the just one, however that isn't any excuse.- Google supports the TPP because of three mostly-evil provisions that may profit Google.- Google has made it so that Chrome now automatically installs the DRM module. This makes it dangerous for safety researchers in the US to research possible insecurity in Chrome. More info.- Support is rising for reverting US antitrust law to what it was earlier than Reagan weakened it. That's the reason Google is using its influence to weaken those that campaign against this.

How I Got Fired From a D.C. Think Tank for Fighting Against the facility of Google.

- Google told a reporter in 2011 that internet sites with out "+1" buttons can be punished with lower search rankings. When she revealed a narrative in Forbes about that, Google pressured Forbes to take it down.

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