Google Smart Software: Lawyers to the Rescue
May 2, 2023
The article “Beginning of the End of OpenAI” in Analytics India raised an interesting point about Google’s smart software. The essay suggests that a legal spat over a trademark for “GPT” could allow Google to make a come-from-behind play in the generative software race. I noted this passage:
A lot of product names appear with the term ‘GPT’ in it. Now, if OpenAI manages to get its trademark application decided in favour, all of these applications would have to change their name, and ultimately not look appealing to customers.
Flip this idea to “if Google wins…”, OpenAI could — note “could” — face a fleet of Google legal eagles and the might of Google’s prescient, forward forward, quantumly supreme marketing army.
What about useful products, unbiased methods of generating outputs, and slick technology? Wait. I know the answer. “That stuff is secondary to our new core competency. The outputs of lawyers and marketing specialists.”
Stephen E Arnold May 2, 2023
What Does Poor Performer Mean? Loser, Lousy Personnel Processes, or Crawfishing
December 15, 2022
Google is not afraid to fire anyone who ignites controversy within the company related to diversity and women. Sometimes it is not bad press that causes Google to lay off its employees, instead it is the economy. The Daily Hunt reports that, “Google Asked Managers To Fire 10,000 ‘Poor Performers’ As Mass Layoffs Hit Tech Sector.”
The US federal government’s raising interest rates and tech companies that make a large portion of their profits from ads are feeling the pain. Meta, Google, Amazon, Twitter, and more companies are firing more workers. Alphabet is telling its managers to lay off all employees who are rated as “poor performers.” The hope is to get rid of at least 10,000 workers and there might be some subterfuge behind it:
“As per a report from Forbes, Google might even bank on these rankings to avoid paying bonuses and stock grants. Google’s managers have been reportedly asked to categorize 10,000 employees as “poor performers” so that 10,000 people can be fired. Alphabet has a total workforce of 187,000 people, which is one of the largest workforces in tech.”
Google’s workforce is described as bloated and pays its employees 70% more than Microsoft compensates its staff or 153% compared to the top twenty big tech companies. Google pays more than its competition to hoard talent and increases its stranglehold on the tech industry.
My thought is that Google is into the lifetime labeling approach to handling RIFed professionals. There’s nothing like a lifetime albatross around the neck of a job seeking Xoogler used to Foosball and snacks.
Whitney Grace, December 15, 2022
2Italy: Cracking Down on Copyright Violations
October 24, 2022
It is easy to break copyright on the Internet, but it is near impossible to enforce it unless you have time, money, and inclination. According to Giovanni Franchini’s blog post: “Copyright, The Antitrust Authority Condemns Fechner and Photoclaims’ ‘Illegal Letters’. Stopping The Scam,” German lawyer Robert Fechner sent copyright violation letters on behalf of the Photoclaim company to unsuspecting Italian citizens. The Italian Competition and Market Authority decreed that Fechner’s notices were illegal and to cease any further actions. The official documentation is as follows:
“In condemning the Fechner-Photoclaim system, the Authority states: ‘the payment requests sent by the lawyer Fechner, on behalf of Photoclaim, do not appear to comply with the high degree of diligence required by professionals in the legal protection of online copyright sector and are capable of considerably limiting the freedom of choice of the recipient micro-enterprises and inducing them to hire decisions of a commercial nature that he otherwise would not have made. Such conduct therefore integrates an unfair commercial practice, in violation of Articles 20, paragraph 2, 24 and 25, of the Consumer Code ‘“
Fechner and Photclaim sent violation notices en masse to people in the hopes of collecting fees. When one company received the notice, it decided to investigate and notified the Italian Competition and Market Authority. The Italian Competition and Market Authority then decided to conduct its own investigation, and asked Photoclaim and Fechner to comply with the process, but was met with resistance. Fechner and Photoclaim used their knowledge of international bureaucracy and law to drag the scam out as long as possible.
The Italian Competition and Market Authority finally called BS on Fechner and Photoclain, fined them, and told them to go away. The bad actors wanted to make a profit off of supposed copyright violations, but they failed to understand what copyright does. Copyright protects an individual’s or group’s rights and the originators of a unique body of work. It prevents others from copying or stealing the work for their own gain. If theft is suspected, then the copyright holders have the right to take legal action, demand a fee for usage, etc.
This scam is similar to fake tech support calls or Amazon/eBay violation scams. The bad actors demand fees, then threaten legal action to scare the victims into paying money. Fechner and Photoclaim went a roundabout way to steal money. Maybe they could learn a thing or two from Nigerian bad actors.
Whitney Grace, October 24, 2022
Microsoft: Now It Is the Chinese Because Russia, Well, Russia
October 3, 2022
Brad Smith, president of Microsoft Corp, pinned the blame for the SolarWinds’ misstep on 1000 super cyber warriors from the all-time leader in muffing bunnies. With Russia’s special operation, few would attribute technical super powers to a nation state unable to refuel tanks or prevent troops from eating poisoned cookies offered by a grandmotherly type. China, I think it is your turn to be cast as the dark nemesis for the outstanding Microsoft Exchange Server.
“More Trouble for Exchange Server As Zero-Day Exploits Attacked” asserts:
Microsoft has acknowledged the issues in a post on the Security Response Center, identifying two vulnerabilities, one a Server Side Request Forgery, and another that allows remote code execution via PowerShell. These vulnerabilities are apparently being currently exploited, with signs pointing to China state sponsored hacking groups, who are known to use some of the web shells used in the attacks.
Are there fixes? Sure, the write up reports:
The company also lists some possible detection techniques using Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Endpoint, and Defender Antivirus.
Microsoft offers some after-the-fact words in this oracular Redmondian emission. Do I have some questions? Nah. Been there. Done that. Do I have observations? Nah, been there and done that too.
One thing could be added to the list of life’s certainties: Microsoft and security are the new peanut butter and jelly of technology. Bad actors love the combo.
Stephen E Arnold, October 3, 2022
Meta Covets Kiddie Instagrams
January 5, 2022
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri’s recent testimony before Congress shows Facebook continues to deny truths revealed by whistleblower Frances Haugen: The company’s own research demonstrates Instagram is harmful to children and teens. Vox Recode reports that “Facebook Still Won’t Give Up Instagram for Kids.” Mosseri was asked whether the company would permanently halt development of Instagram for Kids, a platform intended for children ages 10–12. All the CEO would commit to was that if such a project were launched it would require parental permission. So that is a long-winded no. Writer Shirin Ghaffary observes:
“The exchange reveals a deeper takeaway from the hearing: Instagram — and its parent company Meta (formerly Facebook) — do not seem to believe their product is harmful enough to children and teens that it needs radical change. That’s in spite of internal company research leaked by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, which showed that one in three teenage girls who felt bad about their bodies said Instagram made them feel worse. The research also showed that 13 percent of British teenage users and 6 percent of American teenage users who had suicidal thoughts traced the desire to kill themselves to Instagram. … [Mosseri’s] answers seemed to do little to reassure the remarkably bipartisan group of US lawmakers at the hearing, who say they believe Instagram is damaging teenagers’ mental health. These lawmakers say they are committed to passing legislation that could force Facebook and other tech companies to change their businesses to better protect children.”
But are they really? We also learn:
“Right now, there are several bills out to create stronger privacy laws, to establish penalties for Facebook if it allows damaging content to surface, and to mandate that Facebook must share more data with outside researchers to assess the harms of its products. So far, none of these bills have passed or are even close to passing.”
It sounds like Meta intends to ride out the wave of outrage until something displaces it in the public’s awareness, as is bound to occur, then reintroduce its platform for tweens. Perhaps it will give the product a different name. Certainly it will continue to spin social media as a net good for children, as Mosseri did at that hearing. Given both the public’s limited attention span and Congress’ tortoise-like speed, it seems like a solid plan.
Cynthia Murrell, January 5, 2022
Microsoft: Whipping Up the Dataverse to Distract from Security Issues?
December 27, 2021
I pegged the half-baked Windows 11 as a way to deflect tech writers from Microsoft’s noteworthy security challenges. The names almost became household words, spoken in retirement facilities and pre-schools. The mantra? SolarWinds, Exchange Server, Printspooler, Azure, etc.
How does a giant company with millions of “users” respond? My first thought was: Get everyone amped over the Windows 11 release. And the “real” tech journalists responded. Big names like Paul Thurrott were not clued in to the release. Wow, surprise! ZDNet chased the ball around the cubicle. And to cap the PR push Windows 11 users cannot select a different browser. That will put some “real” tech bloggers teeth on edge.
What was the result? The mind boggling security issues have been pushed into the background. From Microsoft’s point of view, that may be a good thing.
So what’s next?
How about this? “Microsoft is mining the Xbox 360 ‘Red Ring’ controversy for profit, and that’s not cool.” Yep, that’s the headline for a story about Microsoft hardware failure. The promotion was couched within a YouTube video. Plus, Microsoft will sell its faithful and security indifferent users a poster. No NFT for the Softies? This is a tree killing, ink centric offering.
To what end?
Just try to recall that the SolarWinds’, Exchange, etc. vulnerabilities still bedevil some security professionals. Will the tech bloggers and experts cut from Thurrott wool notice?
Nah. Red herring is a wonderful dish for a New Year’s feast in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, December 27, 2021
Palantir Technologies: On the Runway for a Trillion Dollar Take Off?
November 29, 2021
Palantir Technologies is an interesting company. Its technology is a combination of 2003 legacy innovations, some open source goodness, and 18 years of working hard to put a fence around policeware, intelware, financial fraud, and a handful of other markets. It sure seems to me that The Motley Fool, who is neither motley nor a fool, believes that this financial benchmark is a possibility; otherwise, why write the story? PR, stock churn, controversy, to catch the attention of observers and sideline sitters like myself? I don’t know, but with Apple putting the PR in PRivacy, who knows?
The premise is interesting. I noted this passage in the Motley and Fool write up called “Will Palantir Be a Trillion Dollar Stock by 2042“:
Palantir is valued at $41.3 billion, or 27 times this year’s sales.
Good but with unicorns being birthed with Malthusian energy, there may be some boundaries on Palantir’s ambitions. (I will mention a couple of them at the close of this blog post.)
The write up also states:
The company expects that growth to be driven by its new and expanded contracts with government agencies, as well as the growth of its Foundry platform for large commercial customers. The accelerating growth of its commercial business over the past year, which notably outpaced the growth of its government business last quarter, supports that thesis.
I noted this statement, which I find somewhat amusing:
The company has gained a firm foothold with the U.S. government, but it still faces competition from internally developed systems. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for example, has been developing its own platform to replace Palantir’s Falcon. If other agencies follow ICE’s lead, the company’s dream of becoming the “default operating system for data across the U.S. government” could abruptly end.
I assume that Messrs. Motley and Fool know something about government procurement, why US and EU agencies license multiple systems, and stimulate internal innovation. Yep, I am thinking about DoD incubation centers and 18f. To Motley’s and Fool’s analysis, I tip my fake fur hat to the mention of Amazon as a competitor. Many don’t understand the scope of Amazon’s government services, and probably if told, still wouldn’t grasp the online bookstore as provider of streaming business data and slick AWS blockchain tools.
Let me share some of the hurdles that the galloping stallion has to clear after 18 years on the track:
- The NSO Group dust up has changed the table stakes for policeware and intelware outfits which seek to expand into commercial markets. The impact of NSO Group has been biting Israeli firms, but who knows what will happen tomorrow. The past is not a reliable predictor in today’s flash mob environment.
- The newer methods developed since Palantir opened for “business” are impressive. Many are more capable than Palantir because many tasks with which a trained Palantir forward deployed engineer must engage are point-and-click. Check out Datawalk, Sphinx 12, or a few of the Tel Aviv based outfits’ methods. (A ton of Voyager insider information has been dumped online courtesy of FOIA and the LAPD.)
- Crime is rising, but cyber crime in its multiferous manisfestations is sky rocketing. That means that the vendors pitching solutions could face buyer remorse. What will some of those who find that nifty smart software is not too much of a barrier to novel exploits engendered by the good enough software approaches of Google-Android type coding or Microsoft cloud-type engineering? Maybe some big time litigation?
Net net: From my perspective Palantir Technologies is an intelware and policeware outfit which has to deal with upstart competitors, tough to predict regulation and trade controls, and the looming shadow of buyer remorse which will fall across the cyber intelligence sector and hit vendors indiscriminately.
A trillion dollar outfit? Is there an NFT for Seeing Stones yet?
Stephen E Arnold, November 29, 2021
A Simple Query, Interesting Consequences
October 15, 2021
The balance between effective tools for law-enforcement and civil liberties is, of course, a tricky one. Forbes discusses the thorny issue of keyword warrants in, “Exclusive: Government Secretly Orders Google to Identify Anyone Who Searched a Sexual Assault Victim’s Name, Address and Telephone Number.” The use of this specific warrant was inadvertently, and temporarily, unsealed by the Justice Department in September. Forbes was able to review the documents before they were sealed again. The write-up gives some relevant details of the Wisconsin case, but basically investigators asked Google for the Google account information and IP addresses of anyone who had searched for the victim’s name, two spellings of her mother’s name, her address, and her phone number on 16 specific days. Before this, we’re told, only two other keyword warrants had been made public. Write Thomas Brewster emphasizes:
“While Google deals with thousands of such orders every year, the keyword warrant is one of the more contentious. In many cases, the government will already have a specific Google account that they want information on and have proof it’s linked to a crime. But search term orders are effectively fishing expeditions, hoping to ensnare possible suspects whose identities the government does not know. It’s not dissimilar to so-called geofence warrants, where investigators ask Google to provide information on anyone within the location of a crime scene at a given time. … The latest case shows Google is continuing to comply with such controversial requests, despite concerns over their legality and the potential to implicate innocent people who happened to search for the relevant terms.”
In this particular case, the warrant’s narrow scope probably prevented that from happening. Still, even the most carefully worded requests set precedent. And others have been broad enough to impugn the merely curious, as with these orders made to Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo during the investigation into 2018’s serial bombings in Austin. Those warrants called for the account information and IP addresses of anyone searching for certain addresses and terms like “low explosives” and “pipe bomb.” As the ACLU’s Jennifer Granick observes:
“Trawling through Google’s search history database enables police to identify people merely based on what they might have been thinking about, for whatever reason, at some point in the past. This is a virtual dragnet through the public’s interests, beliefs, opinions, values and friendships, akin to mind reading powered by the Google time machine.”
As Granick sees it, keyword warrants not only breach the Fourth Amendment’s protections from unreasonable searches, they also threaten the freedom of speech granted by First Amendment: Google users may hesitate to look up information if their search histories could be handed over to the government at any moment. It does not help, she notes, that this is all going down in secret. See the article for more information.
Cynthia Murrell October 15, 2021
Google: Is Duplicity THE Game Plan?
September 27, 2021
I read “Google CEO Sought to Keep Incognito Mode Issues Out of Spotlight, Lawsuit Alleges.” Keep in mind that this is an allegation. The write up reports:
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai in 2019 was warned that describing the company’s Incognito browsing mode as “private” was problematic, yet it stayed the course because he did not want the feature “under the spotlight,” according to a new court filing. Google spokesman José Castañeda told Reuters that the filing “mischaracterizes emails referencing unrelated second and third-hand accounts.”
Like the word “unlimited” in “unlimited downloads”, my hunch is that “incognito” has a special meaning to Googlers. Those who are not Googley will not understand that “incognito” is a flag which makes it possible to pay attention to such actions within that browser function.
I am not Googley; therefore, I inferred that incognito meant:
with one’s identity concealed
There you go. A simple error caused because I, like some other people, assume that definitions matter. They do. What’s left out is that super smart executives at some high tech companies speak their own language. Like “diversity” and “Timnit Gebru.”
The Googley don’t make mistakes with words.
Stephen E Arnold, September 27, 2021
DuckDuckGo Email Protection Now in Beta
August 4, 2021
DuckDuckGo has released a new privacy-centric service. The Verge reports, “DuckDuckGo Launches New Email Protection Service to Remove Trackers.” Famous for its non-tracking search platform, the company also offers mobile and desktop browser extensions and is working on its own privacy-focused desktop browser. Metasearch to browser to email: the company aims to protect privacy across the online environment. The article describes how the email service removes trackers, and one can find details on how its other offerings work at its website. It all sounds very effective, and we are glad to see these measures in place. However, we have a question: What about those log files? I suppose we are to assume no admin ever, ever looks at that data.
Writer Dave Gershgorn describes how the Email Protection tool works:
“The company’s new Email Protection feature gives users a free ‘@duck.com’ email address, which will forward emails to your regular inbox after analyzing their contents for trackers and stripping any away. DuckDuckGo is also extending this feature with unique, disposable forwarding addresses, which can be generated easily in DuckDuckGo’s mobile browser or through desktop browser extensions. The personal DuckDuckGo email is meant to be given out to friends and contacts you know, while the disposable addresses are better served when signing up for free trials, newsletters, or anywhere you suspect might sell your email address. If the email address is compromised, you can easily deactivate it. These tools are similar to anti-tracking features implemented by Apple in iOS 14 and iOS 15, but DuckDuckGo’s approach integrates into iOS, Android, and all major web browsers. DuckDuckGo will also make it easier to spin up disposable email addresses on the fly, for newsletters or anywhere you might share your email. Tackling email privacy has been a major goal for DuckDuckGo, as the company pushes for privacy-friendly methods for various online tasks.”
According to this 2017 study, more than 70 percent of email lists employ trackers that tell advertisers when, where, and on what device a message is opened. This information, of course, is then used to build advertising profiles. DuckDuckGo knows switching email addresses is a hassle most users would be unwilling to endure, so it came up with this intermediary layer. Naturally, the tool integrates with the company’s browser extensions. One limitation—while a user can respond to email that comes in to their @duck.com address, one cannot use it to initiate a new email thread. Email Protection is currently in beta; no word on when we can expect the tool to be released to the public.
Cynthia Murrell, August 4, 2021
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