Google responds to recent anti-competitive lawsuit

22 October 2020
Google claims the lawsuit doesn’t tell the whole story and rebuts that the lawsuit does nothing to help consumers.

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Anonymous, 22 Oct 2020There are no real privacy issues with Google, in my view. I... moreNo consideration in the trading of your data for profiling, and by foreign governments. Of hiding those settings, now they are there trying to prevent law suites. Privacy denial is always an explicit opt in, which should be detailed and straight forwards, and preferably just when needed (no unseeded permissions lobbed in). On android you get hassled for more access, access happens without permission in the background, like wifi sniffing and the broad apps have standard permissions you don't get told about at installation, in the background. The privacy permiddy are often burried, leading to most people being forced to accept it in niavity. If you search ever setting and account page, it is surprising what's there. If you look at various apps, they have many times more permissions than they need, and set dependencies which are not needed except to force uneededly wide data access The system is designed to fool people.

    "... because they can’t find alternatives."

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      • Anonymous
      • U{6
      • 22 Oct 2020

      YUKI93, 22 Oct 2020"Google responds to the lawsuits claim that users aren... moreThere are no real privacy issues with Google, in my view. It is all easily controllable with account settings changes and slight tweaks to user behaviour.

      And what can Google really do with all your data anyway? Show some 'more relevant' ads? What else is there to worry about?

        I personally agree 100% with Google and the points it made.
        The few who are not tech savvy enough can always ask for help from their daughter/grand-daughter

          "Google responds to the lawsuits claim that users aren’t savvy enough to choose a different search provider but points out that when Yahoo! paid Mozilla to be Firefox’s default search option, most Americans switched the setting to Google."

          Jokes on you, Google. I value my privacy and left you for dead. I replace Google Search with DuckDuckGo and Startpage, replace Chrome with Microsoft Edge and Opera, replace Google Mobile Services with microG, and replace all your products with FOSS alternatives particularly from F-Droid. Couldn't be any happier than that.

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            • Populist Hell
            • vG4
            • 22 Oct 2020

            I am not Fan of Trump and his hard Right politics.

            I don't indulge in politics

            but I will support his cause in this matter,

            Google is a smug company and acting as a gatekeeper to the internet.


            Just like how Government regulates the citizens of its country with Billions of rules, The government must regulate massive corperations too.

              Anonymous, 22 Oct 2020It should just blow over like the old anti-trust suit again... moreMost likely the people who set the wheels in motion also wants a slice of the sweet pie. If Google can afford to pay to be the search engine, perhaps they can also pay not to be sued.

              But the bigger point here is probably the anti-competitive behavior, which should be banned. Many promotions have a provision that says "don't do business with competitors".

                Android.Master, 22 Oct 2020Google is openly in bed with China. Hence, The US governme... morePretty sure Google alr chose to leave China years ago because they didn't want to comply with their laws.

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                  • AnonD-945200
                  • Dk@
                  • 22 Oct 2020

                  living in a capitalist world and complaining about monopoly 😐

                    • G
                    • GeeX
                    • IWS
                    • 22 Oct 2020

                    That's not true google..

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                      • Aria
                      • r@p
                      • 22 Oct 2020

                      It's not true

                      In android phones, you forced to use Google and other Google related services.

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                        • Anonymous
                        • fJy
                        • 22 Oct 2020

                        Android.Master, 22 Oct 2020Google is openly in bed with China. Hence, The US governme... moreWhat???!!! Google doesn't even operate in China.

                          Google is openly in bed with China.
                          Hence, The US government is filing these lawsuits.
                          As long as they were complying with the NSA and the pentagon, the US had no issues with them.

                            Ironically, it's the US government which should be filed with a lawsuit for preventing Google to provide services to some OEMs using the allegation of "national security".

                              The return of reason.

                              In a truely competitive market place:

                              1- Users could freely load the operating system and applications of their choice.

                              2- They would not be required to agree to a lengthy service agreements which hide what is meant so that people can't read it and are therefore forced to sign it, to use the product they already bought, as an extortion.

                              3- They would not be required to agree to unreasonable terms, including those restrictimg choice or violating privacy or valid legal, or reasonable, action. As the reason case under contract law also touches, and which law has been widely violated against consumers.

                              4- Their data would not be collected up and themselves treated as farm animals against their will.

                              5- The privacy violation economic, reduces true valid competition in the market, compelling people to submit to such economic competitors, and models on a lowest common denomination of invalid economy, which undercuts all valid denominations, except for free, which is the gold base standard to compete against, as it often lacks funding to be too competitive.

                              6- Manufacturers and users, could choose any operating system and application package to include without being required to include others.

                              7- There would not be surveillance of private data to get an economic advantage, and economic advantage over competitors.

                              8- There would not be systems and code to otherwise demand and lock in people to certain services.

                              9- Hardware and services would not be artificially constricted, and not be constructed or constricted in such a way to produce an stratification of products and services, to produce an artificially increased profit margin.

                              10- Users would have free access to their data and services to backup and examine in usable form as they see fit, and to completely and easily move data and services to new services in a portable way as they see fit.

                              11- Users would get fully controllable and secure services and data that does what they want in maintenance, instead of being locked into what the provider wants.


                              In all the ways the above standard isn't kept, users are forced and progressively constricted into supporting the service and service standard of a provider, allowing domination by tassid approval born out of outside compulsion.

                                He said People not one person. Just cuz you don’t use doesn’t mean others also don’t use it

                                  "Today’s lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed. People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives."

                                  >>> Alternatives were never allowed to flourish just like twitter didn't allow Gab to flourish.

                                  " The lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers. To the contrary, it would artificially prop up lower-quality search alternatives"

                                  >>> Making basic searches on Google yields in bias results especially when related to politics.
                                  IMO Bing is like the old Google in terms of search accuracy.

                                  Manipulating search results to affect outcome of elections are just small part of the power Google has due to its monopoly. Therefore, they need to be broken up just like they did with Standard Oil back in the day.

                                  Someone ask Google why they are paying so many fines in the EU but never paid that many fines in the US uptil now?

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                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 7Xc
                                    • 22 Oct 2020

                                    "People use Google because they choose to"

                                    Oh, is that the reason why I don't use the Google App to search for things? Is that why I'd rather open Firefox and search using Duckduckgo when a Google search is oh so more conveniently in reach, right on my home screen?

                                      ASUS ROG Phone 3, 22 Oct 2020There is no anti competitive because others don't know... moreIf you are using a ROG 3 - what are your pros and cons list for it - what do you like, and what do you dislike?

                                        There is no anti competitive because others don't know how too monetise search it deliver search results by understanding three users query....... This is not a one year hardware research port two years software implementation. This is the result of many powerful brains, engineering, business, software & hardware many of which the actual users may not even come to know about it. Google is not stopping anyone in their own ecosystem to thrive! They even pay Apple to include their search! If others are not scaling, it is not Googles problem anymore unless they charge like Apple(which charges their customers for its services) for searches.....Even Trillion Dollar company can't come near Google even 0,5% of what Google offers, how do you expect others to match?

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