“Google agreed to destroy billions of records to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the #internet use of people who thought they were browsing privately in its Chrome browser’s #incognito mode.

Users alleged that #Google’s analytics, cookies and apps let the #Alphabet unit improperly #track people who set Google’s Chrome browser to “incognito” mode and other browsers to “#private” #browsing mode.”

Dirtbags

<https://theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/01/google-destroying-browsing-data-privacy-lawsuit>

When Google’s slop meets webslop, search stops: https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/15/inhuman-gigapede/#coprophagic-ai

A very good article on awful Google AI search results and how Google have ruined their own reputation by wrecking their workforce, by @pluralistic. A quote:

'Publishers and advertisers have more concentrated money than readers, but the dominant theory of antitrust since the Reagan administration is something called "consumer welfare," which holds that monopolistic conduct is only to be condemned if it makes consumers worse off. If a company screws its workers or suppliers in order to deliver better products and/or better prices, then "consumer welfare" holds that the government should celebrate and protect the monopolist for improving "efficiency."

But all that is true only if Google AI Overviews are good. And they are very, very bad.'

Don't use Google for search.

#google #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AISlop #CoryDoctorow #search #slop

@pluralistic This part of the article is very enlightening from a worker perspective, especially when Google upper management have relatively recently fired around 10,000 workers:

'Once Google stops growing, it becomes a "mature" company and its PE ratio will fall from 20:1 to something more like 4:1, meaning an 80% collapse in the company's share price. This would be very bad news for Googlers (whose personal wealth is disproportionately tied up in Google stock) and for Google itself (because many of its key personnel will depart when the shares they've banked for retirement collapse, and new hires will expect to be paid in scarce dollars, not abundant stock). For a company like Google, "maturity" is unlikely to be a steady state – rather, it's likely to be a prelude to collapse.

Which is why Google is so desperately sweaty to maintain the narrative about its growth.'

#google #layoffs

ICMYI: Google has said it is 'combining ChromeOS and Android into a single platform'.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/07/is-chrome-os-merging-with-android?v1

#ChromeOS #google #tech

Interesting read…

𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 (𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝘿𝙪𝙘𝙠𝘿𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙂𝙤)

https://www.simpleanalytics.com/blog/google-is-tracking-you-even-when-you-use-duck-duck-go

#google #tracking #privacy #InfoSec #security #tech #technology #BigTech #BigBrother

Search engines in a nutshell

#SearchEngines #Google #Bing #DuckDuckGo #ZoTop #SearxNG #Brave #Qwant #Startpage #SwissCows #Mojeek #Ecosia #Lilo #Stract #Marginalia #MullvadLeta #Kagi

https://www.jeey.net/google.html

Alt...

Name : Google - URL : 🤬 - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : YOLO - Engine : google - Paid service : No Name : Bing (Microsof) - URL : 🤢 - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : YOLO - Engine : bing - Paid service : No Name : ZoTop (Zaclys) - URL : zotop.zaclys.com - Ads : No - AI : No - Privacy : Respected - Engine : google, bing, etc. (configurable) - Paid service : No Name : Brave Search - URL : search.brave.com - Ads : No - AI : Yes - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Brave Search - Paid service : No Name : Qwant - URL : qwant.com - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing - Paid service : No Name : Duckduckgo - URL : duckduckgo.com - Ads : Yes (can be disable) - AI : Not by default - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing and others - Paid service : No Name : Swisscows - URL : swisscows.com - Ads : Yes (not for subscribers) - AI : Yes - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing - Paid service : Optional Name : StartPage - URL : startpage.com - Ads : Yes - AI : No - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Google - Paid service : No Name : Mojeek - URL : mojeek.com - Ads : No - AI : Yes (specific tab) - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Mojeek - Paid service : No Name : Ecosia - URL : ecosia.org - Ads : Yes - AI : Yes - Privacy : Not so much - Engine : Bing - Paid service : No Name : Mullvad Leta - URL : leta.mullvad.net - Ads : No - AI : No - Privacy : Respected - Engine : Google, Brave - Paid service : No

Google is tracking you even when you use DuckDuckGo https://www.simpleanalytics.com/blog/google-is-tracking-you-even-when-you-use-duck-duck-go

'Think DuckDuckGo keeps you safe from Google? Well think again. A new study shows that even with a privacy-focused search engine, Google's trackers follow you around the web (mostly through analytics, ads, and video embeds). The research by SafetyDetectives compares four countries and reveals just how hard it is to avoid Google online.'

#DuckDuckGo #google #SurveillanceCapitalism #privacy #search

@billbennett @lightweight @podsrover Came across this on Mastodon. It may help.

https://ioc.exchange/@Avitus/114820977984386974

But what alternative is there? I am no keen on Apple.

#GeminiAI #Google #DoNoEvilMyAss

@nextcloud @petrisch @unifiedpush @Matomo

"We do not use Google trackers on our website"

I checked with uBlock origin the day I posted that, and it was blocking 2 items from Google. Checking now I see Matomo instead, so thank you.

"we have our eye on publishing our videos on PeerTube in the future"

Why "in the future"? Tilvids confirmed they'd be happy to host you. I've offered to set up YouTube mirroring free of charge. There is no cost to you beyond giving permission, and yet I've been calling with no response for years.

"please do share an issue on GitHub"
2020: https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/5510
2021: https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/8834
https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/11094
https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/8684
2022: https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/11094
2023: https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/11898

There are more.

#Nextcloud #Privacy #Google

@petrisch @nextcloud

Here's the thing. I don't even begrudge Nextcloud posting videos to YouTube. The part I have a problem with is that they say they're promoting decentralization, yet after all these years they refuse to post to any alternative.

Similarly, they provide no option to use @unifiedpush , but *only* allow Googles Firebase for notifications.

Using Google trackers on the website is pretty ridiculous though when such high quality alternatives exist, such as @Matomo .

They also never bother to explain WHY they continue to ignore all of these things that so obviously go against the values they supposedly stand for, Just crickets to any questions and more promotional videos / blog posts.

#Nextcloud #Google #Privacy #Peertube #UnifiedPush #YouTube

@aral wow. Another reason to avoid #Google (and related sites like #YouTube that I learnt recently some people don't realise is affiliated to the genocidal advertising-centric wannabe monopoly)

@nixCraft

Oh yeah? As independently verified by whom? 😐
“ According to Google: AI now writes 50% of the code at #Google 😱 ”

According to Google: AI now writes 50% of the code at #Google 😱 https://research.google/blog/ai-in-software-engineering-at-google-progress-and-the-path-ahead/ I wonder how Chromium/Chrome/Android and other software will look in 5 years ?

Alt...

A screenshot showing AI usage in software engineering at Google which is almost 50% now.

I asked #ground news app not to say #UK doctor strike on their #headlines and change it to #England
And they actually did so!
Quickly!!!
If you haven't checked out:
https://ground.news/
yet I recommend you do
News aggregator (but I needed to ditch #Google #news ) and it shows the bias and political leaning split of spun sources which is fun. If you subscribe the highest level does #factCheck on #writers and outlets so you know where salt pinch/mountain is a help
#Scotland #devolution

🚨Today #Google increases prices by ~20% 🚨

❤️ While we offer 50% discount. ❤️

✅ Check out Tuta Mail & Tuta Calendar: http://tuta.com/goeuropean

Alt...

Screenshot of an article: Google: The Largest Increase of the Group Google Workspace made the most dramatic pricing move. Prices increased 17-22% across all plans, with the popular Business Standard plan rising 16% from $14.40 to $16.80 per user per month. Screenshot of info email from Google: Upcoming price changes for Google Workspace The price of your Google Workspace Business Standard subscription will be increasing on or after Jul 09, 2025

I'm bummed that #Google doesn't let #RCS messages function on #LineageOS

Folks complaining about #google AI overviews...

Why the frick are you still using google search in 2025?

                           WTFWT            W W W           
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          W  W     WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF  W    W  W      
           W    W    WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWT          W     
         W         WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWT       W       
       W   W     WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWT W WT     W W    
      W   W    WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWT           WT   
     W   W     WTF WTF  WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF         W  
    WT  W    W     WTFW     WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWT W        W 
           W     WTF  W        WTFWTFW   WTFWTFW  W         
  W            WTF     WTFWTFW W W  WTFWTF WTFWT W          
 W            WTF         W  WT   WT    W   WTFW   W        
            WTFWT       WTFWT  W    W WTFW  WTFW            
           WTFWTF         WTF      W  WT    WTFW    W       
          WTFWTF                            WTF      W      
           WTFWT                            WT          W   
            W                W              W               
            W W              WT W W W       W               
             W                        W     W               
              WTF           W  W W W                        
              WTF            W WTFWTF                       
WT              WT              W             W             
                  W                      W         W  W     
       WTFWT   W   W           W   W   W W                  
      W        W     W                W  W                  
                        W           W    WT    W        W   
                                       W      W             
                  W      W          W   W                W  
                     W   W                      W           

Yes, I literally turned Jackie Chan into WTF for this. You're not welcome. Apologies to Jackie.

#StartPage #DDG #Clew #Mojeek #Marginalia #ThereClapAreClapSoClapManyClapOtherClapOptionsClap

"The intent of proprietary computing is that everything users do should come under the dictates of the owners of the code...

You can agree to your own subjugation, that’s your choice. It may seem more convenient. It may seem comfortable. It may even seem pleasurable and safe. But in the end, you’re handing over your own fate."

#fsf #FreeSoftware #GNU + #Linux #Freedom #Democracy #Computing #Apple #Microsoft #Google #Amazon #Ethics #Libre

https://beardystarstuff.net/posts/2025-07-04.html

@tdp_org @richwareham

In theory, you can take all of those Google site verifications and use HTML files in the root of the served-up tree. At least, that's how I did it over a decade ago, and it seems to be still working. Which is always a plus when it comes to #Google. (-:

#GoogleSearchConsole

@nextcloud releases a new video / blogpost for Nextcloud Talk for #DataControl.

The blog post embeds Google trackers.

The video can *only* be watched on a Google surveillance platform.

The app depends on Google / Apple for notifications.

Does anyone else see the problem here? None of these are necessary.

#Nextcloud #Privacy #Google #Talk #YouTube

How about no

#AI #Google #Gemini #NoAI

Alt...

Email notification, from Google, it says "Welcome to Gemini"

⚠️Today Gemini starts scanning your phone ⚠️

We've updated this blog post with recommendations from the @Mastodon community. Learn:

👉 How to disable Gemini
👉 How to deinstall Gemini

And why @GrapheneOS @LineageOS and others are better in the first place.

Stop #Google now: 👉 https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-disable-gemini-on-android

Alt...

Screenshot of the email Google sent with a headline "We've made it easier for Gemini to interact with your device" next to text, "NO THANKS! Learn how to disable Gemini on Android on the Tuta blog."

On July 7 — tomorrow — Gemini AI will access your WhatsApp and more. Learn how to disable it on Android.
https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-disable-gemini-on-android
#GeminiAI #Google #Android #PrivacyMatters #privacy #NoPrivacy

My mum completely destroyed her Pixel 3, it’s time to get her a new phone. I am thinking about gifting her my #Fairphone5.

What should I get instead?

For sure I will have to deGoogle my new device, either installing, #LineageOS, #CalyxOS, or #GrapheneOS.

My top priorities:

1. A SMALL DEVICE AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE
2. a very good camera, ideally with 2× optical zoom
3. long-lasting battery (with a custom ROM)
4. As much stability and reliability as I can get

(note: Pixel 10 is supposed to launch in August)

#Pixel #Google #Fairphone #smartphone #Android #poll

Was nice to watch our famous @bert_hubert give a talk to my org about the dangers of putting Dutch national gov tech in American cloud platforms. ☁️

#cloud #microsoft #google #aws

Alt...

Bert Hubert in front of a room full of people, a big powerpoint next to him, giving a talk to my coworkers about the dangers of our national gov tech and data being hosted in American clouds, and possible alternatives

⚠️ In four days Gemini wants to scan your phone ⚠️

Stop #Google now: 👉 https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-disable-gemini-on-android

#GeminiAI #Google #Android #PrivacyMatters

Alt...

Screenshot of the email Google sent with a headline "We've made it easier for Gemini to interact with your device" next to text, "NO THANKS! Learn how to disable Gemini on Android on the Tuta blog."

“International Business Machines, and its president Thomas J. Watson, committed genocide by any standard. It was never about the antisemitism. It was never about the National Socialism. It was always about the money. Business was their middle name.”

– Edwin Black, IBM and the Holocaust

The more things change…

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ibm-holocaust_b_1301691

#IBM #Holocaust #BigTech #SiliconValley #Google #Microsoft #israel #genocide #apartheid #settlerColonialism #capitalism #neoliberalism #complicity https://infosec.exchange/@onrust/114779288628253881

Having slogged through Google's 2025 Environmental Report, here's my summary...

(all figures are changes from 2023-2024)

Scope 2 location-based GHG emissions up from 9,252,900 - 11,283,200 tCO2e

Scope 3 GHG emissions up from 10,794,000 - 12,053,000 tCO2e

Total Energy Consumption up from 25,910,500 - 32,727,800 MWh

Total waste generated up from 52,000 - 58,500 metric tons

Water consumption up from 6,352 - 8135 million gallons.

So given that they're significantly worse on every major indicator, you might be wondering how Google spins this as 'driving sustainable innovation' (p4) and a 12% reduction in datacentre emissions (p4)...

The answer is that they're buying more electricity under Power Purchase Agreements - meaning that increasing amounts of renewable energy isn't used for decarbonisation, instead they're used to power the growth in AI and datacentre capacity.

This, alongside the focus on efficiency metrics that obfuscate the growing energy and resource demands of Big Tech needs to be recognised as corporate greenwash that is driving climate change, not fixing it

#Google #AI #DataCenters #sustainability #Tech #ClimateChange

https://sustainability.google/google-2025-environmental-report/

I've had admin powers at 5+ companies' Google Workspace/G Suite over the past decade or so. Every single one had groups which were misconfigured, often so anyone in the whole company could join without approval or see the message history at https://groups.google.com without being a member at all.

This is because for any sensible configuration of Google Groups when using it for email groups you have to use the "Custom" permissions mode. The default Public mode doesn't allow external people to email the group, but does allow the whole company to see all the messages. The default Team mode, has the same problem of everyone being able to see all the messages.

Also let's not forget that dangerous little "Anyone in the organisation can join" toggle at the bottom which is on by default. So any random new starter can join your confidential company directors group and get all the emails sent to it.

Giving Google the benefit of the doubt here, I think the reasoning might be that Google Groups is intended as a kind of company forum, not for private email groups. However that isn't how anyone uses it in my experience...

#security #infosec #google #googleworkspace

Alt...

Screenshot of the default Google Group settings for team mode

Alt...

Screenshot of the default Google Group settings for public mode

🆕 blog! “Contactless Payments with GrapheneOS”

Google's monopolistic stranglehold on Android results in poor experience for power-users, and artificially restricts choice for those who have older phones. For example, Google Wallet is the de facto way to use NFC payments on Android. There's one problem though - it only works with Google's Android. If you have…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/contactless-payments-with-grapheneos/
⸻
#android #google #GrapheneOS #nfc

@pleaseclap The more I think about my own suggestion the more I see bad side effects like you mention.

You know who else will get caught in the crossfire? Those project maintainers. They already field “bug reports” because AI wrote code that doesn’t work and the poor vibe coder assumes it’s a problem in the project not a problem in their AI assistant.

This also demonstrates how #LLMs are an anti-innovation force in technology. If you change something that makes AI-generated code stop working (or make AI generate non-working code more frequently) you will get pressure. Users will ask you to build compatibility shims, keep old versions of API endpoints online, etc. Because people dependent on the content of the training data won’t be able to cope with life moving on and invalidating the training data.

The #LLM will hold us back technologically because it can’t adapt.

Wait until someone like #Google or #AWS tries to deprecate a language runtime like Python 3.10 or Node 20 in their serverless offerings when the time comes. There will be SO much code that LLMs generate that references the retired runtimes. And people won’t know why it doesn’t work. The tech companies will be pressured to keep old stuff online because the people whose job it is to maintain the software can’t cope with fundamental change like that

Just finished PewDiePie's latest Video: "I'm DONE with Google"

Going into it I was hoping that he discovered the Decentralized Web with things like Mastodon or even PeerTube but overall amazing video showing off DeGoogling, I do wonder if he will eventually discover PeerTube and things, along with if he does if he'd even actually host his own instance for his videos but I dealt it due to there's not really money in moving across to the Fediverse for creators like that.

I still highly suggest the video either way.

https://youtu.be/u_Lxkt50xOg?si=Tl8RQuFe4QV6gijY

#PewDiePie #Felix #Linux #LinuxMobile #DeGoogle #Google