Google and the Russian Law: A Mismatch
October 8, 2021
I think this may have been a social visit. You know. A couple of people who wanted to snag a Google mouse pad or one of those blinking Google lapel pins. “Court Marshals Visit Google’s Moscow Office to Enforce Censorship Decision” asserts in “real” news fashion:
In the run-up to Russia’s parliamentary elections on Sept. 17-18-19, the Kremlin’s battle against online dissent brings new developments almost daily. Tech giants are not spared, with Google at the forefront earlier this week. Court marshals visited the company’s Moscow office to enforce an injunctive measure to remove the opposition-minded ‘Smart Vote’ site from search results. This online voting recommendation system was designed by the team of jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny.
Yep, just a casual drop in. Fun. Censorship? I think it depends on whom one asks.
What happened? Google and Apple rolled over. I assume that digital countries understand that real countries have some powers that commercial enterprises lack?
Do you remember when Sergey Brin hoped to ride a Russian rocket into space? Not going to happen this week.
Stephen E Arnold, October 8, 2021
Ex-Googlers Work On Biased NLP Solutions
October 6, 2021
Google is on top of the world when it comes to money and technology. Google is the world’s most used search engine, its Chrome Web browser is used by two-thirds of users, and about 29% of 2021 digital advertising were Google ads. Fast Company asks and investigates important questions about Google’s product quality in: “It’s Not Just You. Google Search Really Is Getting Worse.”
Over 80% of Alphabet Inc.’s revenue, Google’s parent company, comes from advertising revenue and about 85% of the world’s search engine traffic feeds through Google. Google controls a lot of users’ screen time. The search engine’s quality results have been studied and researchers have learned that very few users scroll past the “fold” (all of the available content on a screen). Advertising space at the top of search results is incredibly valuable. It also means that users are forced to scroll further and further to reach non-paid results.
Alphabet Inc. has another revenue generating platform, YouTube. A huge portion of videos include multiple ads. Users can avoid ads by paying for a premium subscription, but very few do.
Google does want to improve its search quality. Currently a lot of information from queries are distributed across multiple Web sites. Google wants to condense everything:
“Google is working on bringing this information together. The search engine now uses sophisticated “natural language processing” software called BERT, developed in 2018, that tries to identify the intention behind a search, rather than simply searching strings of text. AskJeeves tried something similar in 1997, but the technology is now more advanced.
BERT will soon be succeeded by MUM (Multitask Unified Model), which tries to go a step further and understand the context of a search and provide more refined answers. Google claims MUM may be 1,000 times more powerful than BERT, and be able to provide the kind of advice a human expert might for questions without a direct answer.”
Google controls a huge portion of the Internet and how users utilize it. Alphabet Inc. is here to stay for a long time, but there are alternatives such as Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Tor browsers. Google, however, will one day fade. Sears Roebuck, Blockbuster, Kmart, cassettes, etc. were al household names, until they became obsolete.
Whitney Grace, October 6, 2021
Google: More Management of Sensitive Issues
September 24, 2021
Some MBA engineers are driven purely by greed without regard for their fellow humans. When Google formed its parent company, Alphabet Inc., they changed their company motto from “Don’t be evil” to “Do the right thing.” However, Google has proven it does not do the right thing when it comes to respecting user privacy and pursuing the almighty dollar. Google has violated user privacy multiple ways, while they tried to establish a market in China despite the country’s abhorrent human rights record.
The Daily Hunt explains that, “Alphabet Inc’s Google Gave User Data To Hong Kong Authorities Despite Vow.” The Hong Kong Free Press reported that Google gave the Hong Kong government user data, despite promising not to do so. Google said that these reports were actually stop bad actors and crime:
“Alphabet Inc’s Google complied with three of 43 government requests received between July and December 2019, the company told HKFP. One request was for an emergency disclosure involving a credible threat to life, Google said, while the others involved human trafficking and were supported by search warrants granted by the court. They were not related to national security and no user content data was shared, the company added.”
Other technology companies, including Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter, said they would no longer comply with Hong Kong government data requests, because China imposed a national security law that violates civil rights.
Google could be telling the truth when it comes to preventing human trafficking and saving human lives, but they could also comply with the Chinese government in order to gain favor in its technology market.
Huge corporations pretend to be ethical, but its usually lip service. Money and the threat of bad publicity has more sway than violating civil liberties and human rights. Google is not any different.
Whitney Grace, September 24, 2021
Google and Its Informed Approach to Compensating Employees: Just Pay Less
September 23, 2021
Google does have unethical business practices, including violating user privacy, discriminating treat of ethnic minorities and women in its hiring activities and work environment, and attempting to establish a business relationship with China. Another infraction to add to Google’s growing list is: “Google Underpaid Thousands Of International ‘Shadow Workers,’ Violating Labor Laws Around The World, Report Reveals” says Business Insider.
Google employs over 900 temporary workers in Poland, France, Netherlands, Germany, India, Ireland, and the UK. Pay-parity laws in Asia and Europe require companies to pay full-time and temporary workers the same wage if they essentially do the same job. Google underpaid its workers in violation of these laws.
Google’s compliance department discovered the error, but did not want to bring attention to the issue. Instead Google raised wages for new employees in order to avoid financial, reputational, and legal problems. Google is still attempting to save face:
“While the team hasn’t increased the comparator rate benchmarks for some years, actual pay rates for temporary staff have increased numerous times in that period,’ Spyro Karetsos, Google’s chief compliance officer, said in a statement to Insider. Most temporary staff are paid significantly more than the comparator rates.
‘Nevertheless, it’s clear that this process has not been handled consistently with the high standards to which we hold ourselves as a company,’ he added. ‘We’re doing a thorough review, and we’re committed to identifying and addressing any pay discrepancies that the team has not already addressed. And we’ll be conducting a review of our compliance practices in this area. In short, we’re going to figure out what went wrong here, why it happened, and we’re going to make it right.’”
Google certainly has the funds to make it right. Google should be treating all of its employees, no matter their status, equality. If Google had admitted the mistake, they would have looked like the bigger person, been criticized or praised, then the world would have forgotten the incident. Now Google can add this to their list of personnel management achievements.
High school behavior? Intentional disregard for employee rights? We don’t know.
Whitney Grace, September 23, 2021
Alphabet Spells Out YouTube Recommendations: Are Some Letters Omitted?
September 23, 2021
I have been taking a look at Snorkel (Stanford AI Labs, open source stuff, and the commercial Snorkel.ai variants). I am a dim wit. It seems to me that Google has found a diving partner and embracing some exotic equipment. The purpose of the Snorkel is to implement smart workflows. These apparently will allow better, faster, and cheaper operations; for example, classifying content for the purpose of training smart software. Are their applications of Snorkel-type thinking to content recommendation systems. Absolutely. Note that subject matter experts and knowledge bases are needed at the outset of setting up a Snorkelized system. Then, the “smarts” are componentized. Future interaction is by “engineers”, who may or may not be subject matter experts. The directed acyclic graphs are obviously “directed.” Sounds super efficient.
Now navigate to “On YouTube’s Recommendation System.” This is a lot of words for a Googler to string together: About 2,500.
Here’s the key passage:
These human evaluations then train our system to model their decisions, and we now scale their assessments to all videos across YouTube.
Now what letters are left out? Maybe the ones that spell built-in biases, stochastic drift, and Timnit Gebru? On the other hand, that could be a “Ré” of hope for cost reduction.
Stephen E Arnold, September 23, 2021
Google Play Store Content Curation Flop, Well, Thousands of Flops
September 20, 2021
Google does collect user personal information for targeted ads, but more than 19000 apps in the Google Play Store could violate user privacy. The Daily Hunt shares the warning in the article: “Alert! More Than 19000 Apps On Google Play Store Could Leak Your Personal Data-Check Details.”
Digital security company Avast discovered that over 19000 apps hosted on the Google Play Store could leak user data and risk the phone’s security. Avast said the apps leak information, because there is a misconfiguration in the Firebase data. Android developers use Firebase to store user data. Avast reported the problem to Google, so it can notify app developers.
Most of the apps affected are:
“The apps that could be facing the issue are mostly related to lifestyle, gaming, food delivery and email, among others, the firm said, adding that users in Europe, South-East Asia and Latin America region are likely to have been impacted by it. More than 10 percent of 180,300 publicly available Firebase instances were found to be open by researchers at the Avast Threat Labs, which means that apps users’ data in those cases have been exposed to the public.”
User information is waiting to be stolen. Hopefully Google and Android app developers will fix the Firebase misconfiguration quickly so information is stolen by bad actors.
Whitney Grace, September 20, 2021
Useless Search Results? Thank Advertising
September 17, 2021
We thought this was obvious. The Conversation declares, “Google’s ‘Pay-Per-Click’ Ad Model Makes it Harder to Find What You’re Looking For.” Writers Mohiuddin Ahmed and Paul Haskell-Dowland begin by pointing out “to google” has literally become synonymous with searching online via any online search platform. Indeed, Google has handily dominated the online search business, burying some competitors and leaving the rest in the dust. Not coincidentally, the company also rules the web browser and online advertising markets. As our dear readers know, Google is facing pushback from competition and antitrust regulators in assorted countries. However, this article addresses the impact on search results themselves. The authors report:
“More than 80% of Alphabet’s revenue comes from Google advertising. At the same time, around 85% of the world’s search engine activity goes through Google. Clearly there is significant commercial advantage in selling advertising while at the same time controlling the results of most web searches undertaken around the globe. This can be seen clearly in search results. Studies have shown internet users are less and less prepared to scroll down the page or spend less time on content below the ‘fold’ (the limit of content on your screen). This makes the space at the top of the search results more and more valuable. In the example below, you might have to scroll three screens down before you find actual search results rather than paid promotions. While Google (and indeed many users) might argue that the results are still helpful and save time, it’s clear the design of the page and the prominence given to paid adverts will influence behavior. All of this is reinforced by the use of a pay-per-click advertising model which is founded on enticing users to click on adverts.”
We are reminded Google-owned YouTube is another important source of information for billions of users, and it is perhaps the leading platform for online ads. In fact, these ads now intrude on videos at a truly annoying rate. Unless one pays for a Premium subscription, of course. Ahmed and Haskell-Dowland remind us alternatives to Google Search exist, with the usual emphasis on privacy-centric DuckDuckGo. They conclude by pointing out other influential areas in which Google plays a lead role: AI, healthcare, autonomous vehicles, cloud computing, computing devices, and the Internet of Things. Is Google poised to take over the world? Why not?
Cynthia Murrell, September September 17, 2021, 2021
Google and Record Keeping: The Spin Method
September 16, 2021
A number of years ago, I was working in Washington, DC, when I heard chatter in a meeting. Elsewhere in the same building a Labor Department group was trying to figure out why Google didn’t have employment records. My team and I were working in a unit of the Capitol Police and the information elicited a chuckle. Who knew if the info about Google’s inability to provide employment data was accurate or just a poke at the online ad vendor.
I thought about this anecdote when I read “Revealed: Google Illegally Underpaid Thousands of Workers across Dozens of Countries.” The write up explains in what seems a truthful way:
Google executives have been aware since at least May 2019 that the company was failing to comply with local laws in the UK, Europe and Asia that mandate temporary workers be paid equal rates to full-time employees performing similar work, internal Google documents and emails reviewed by the Guardian show. But rather than immediately correct the errors, the company dragged its feet for more than two years, the documents show, citing concern about the increased cost to departments that rely heavily on temporary workers, potential exposure to legal claims, and fear of negative press attention.
“Gee, we don’t have employment data” flashed across my mind. If the write up is accurate, today’s thought is “Gee, we can just try to hide this misstep.”
Seems as if there might be a pattern. I am not sure, but I do recognize selective memory, situational corporate governance, and ignoring rules and regulations.
Gee, what a surprise after a quarter century of regulatory indifference. Hard to believe? Nope. Just institutionalized behavior for a digital country perhaps?
Stephen E Arnold, September 16, 2021
Lucky India. Google Wants to Help
September 16, 2021
Google seeks to clear up a misunderstanding. Odisha’s OrissaPost reports, “Google Says Firmly Sees Itself as Partner to India’s Financial Ecosystem.” At issue is Google Pay and its Spot platform. It sounds like some reports about its partnerships with banks may have given the impression Google is trying to supplant or undermine existing financial institutions in India. We learn:
“The company emphasized that in every geography where Google Pay is present, its stance is consistently one of partnering with the existing financial services and banking systems to help scale and enable frictionless delivery of financial products and services and contribute to the goal of financial inclusion. In a blogpost, Google India said there have been a few instances where these offerings have been reported as ‘Google Pay’s offerings’, which fuels misinterpretation. ‘To be clear, we have always looked at our role firmly as a partner to the existing financial ecosystem that brings unique skill sets and offerings to drive further adoption of digital payments in the country,’ it said. … The internet major also noted that its Spot platform works as an additional discovery channel for many businesses to build and offer new experiences to users to drive adoption of their services. The use cases span across ticket purchase, food ordering, paying for essential services like utility bills, shopping and getting access to various financial products.”
See the write-up or Google India’s blog post for more specific details. The company emphasizes bringing partners onto the Google Pay platform connects them to customers around India who would otherwise be unable to access their services, helping to “level social inequalities.” Aw Google, always looking out for the little guy aren’t you?
Cynthia Murrell, September 16, 2021
Google Redefines Time
September 8, 2021
If you are Googley, you will adjust to the online ad giant’s manipulation of the space-time continuum. “Google Clock Bug Means Some Android Users Are Sleeping through Their Alarms” reports:
With many of us relying on our phones to get up in the morning (or any other time in the day), this is a bigger problem than it might at first appear to be. Google and Spotify do at least appear to have worked quickly to figure out what might be happening.
Perhaps those not happy with the Google manipulation of time, is it time to switch to an alternative device?
Apple sells some mobiles I believe. Are there issues with these devices? Nope, nothing that on device content scanning can cure.
Isn’t it wonderful to have choices in the mobile market?
Stephen E Arnold, September 8, 2021
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