Google Joins The Ranks of Partisonship

[Soldier4Christ]

Google in the last nine years is being accused of joining into the political arena supporting communism as well as anti-American and anti-Christian sentiments. The following articles are somewhat old and are not in any sort of sequence to dates edited but they do still apply. Along with these articles is a web site called "Google Watch" that carries articles on some of the things that Google is doing.

http://www.google-watch.org/

[Soldier4Christ]

Google snubs Memorial Day, again
No holiday logo modification for 9th year in a row

For the ninth year in a row, the Internet search giant Google declined to mark Memorial Day with its trademarked holiday logo modification – something the company has done for the Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, Halloween and other observances that have nothing to do with American patriotism or commemorations of military service or war dead.

Google has, in the past, highlight special honors for Percival Lowell, Edvard Munch and Louis Braille. Lowell was an astronomer, Munch an artist, and Braille developed Braille writing for the blind.

But while the rest of the nation marked Memorial Day today, Google did not.

Other days that have been honored have included National Teachers Day, Women's Day, Ray Charles' birthday, World Water Day and St. George's Day.

Last year, the company came under fire when, for the eighth year in a row, it made no effort to commemorate any holiday honoring U.S. veterans or war dead on either Veterans Day or Memorial Day. It claimed the holiday was too solemn, though its Canadian homepage did feature a tribute to fallen soldiers.

Besides overlooking Veterans Day and Memorial Day since the company's inception in 1999, it also has ignored Christmas.

Google has been criticized for its one-sided political contributions and content policies:

    * Rejecting an ad for a book critical of Bill and Hillary Clinton while continuing to accept anti-Bush themes

    * Rejecting ads critical of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., while continuing to run attack ads against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

    * Allowing the communist Chinese government to have the search engine block "objectionable" search terms such as "democracy."

In addition, the company came under fire for an editorial decision giving preferential placement to large, elite media outlets such as CNN and the BBC over independent news sources, such as WND, even if they are more recent, pertinent and exhaustive in their coverage.

As WND reported, 98 percent of all political donations by Google employees went to support Democrats, and as a matter of fact, Al Gore is now a senior adviser to Google.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave the maximum legal limit of donations to Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry and to primary candidate Howard Dean.

Schmidt also contributed the maximum amount to Sen. Clinton.

[Soldier4Christ]

Google as Big Brother

There is no better illustration of Google's corporate immorality and avarice for personal, private information than Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt's latest announcement about where he wants to take the company.

He told journalists in London the company's goal is to maximize the personal information it holds on you.

"The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'"

I don't know about you, but I don't want any private or public entity to have that kind of private, personal information about me.

"We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don't know enough about you," Schmidt frets. "That is the most important aspect of Google's expansion."

Google's lust for private, personal data on individual users is unsatisfied even though it currently maintains records of your Internet searches for at least two years.

Why would Google need to know every search you conducted for the last two years? What do you suppose the company might do with that information? Did you know your searches were being tracked and maintained in an electronic dossier for future use? Do you trust Google to keep those searches confidential? Do you trust Google never to exploit them for commercial gain?

Recently, Google purchased an advertising company called DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. DoubleClick is known as the most intrusive Internet advertising agency in the world – one that sets cookies in its banners that attach themselves like viruses to your personal computer with the express purpose of tracking your movements and finding out more about your habits.

Do you approve of that kind of activity? Did you know about Google's spying activities?

When confronted about this, Schmidt said his company was working on technology to reduce the concerns of consumers. Notice he didn't say the technology would reduce privacy intrusions – only consumer concerns.

I've warned you that this corporate monstrosity is evil. Maybe you thought I was joking – or resorting to rhetorical overkill to make a point. I assure you this is no joke. This kind of surreptitious espionage is dangerous. Google is rapidly becoming the Big Brother of George Orwell's "1984."

And look at its hideously immoral track record on other matters.

Google sold its corporate soul, if it ever had one, to the totalitarian Chinese regime by agreeing to restrict Internet searches in that country to sanitized, government-approved pabulum – no truth about Tiananmen Square, no truth about freedom movements, no truth about Taiwan independence bids. This was the price to be paid for expansion into the Chinese market.

What if some other dictator wanted something else – like information? Could we count on the spoiled, immature billionaire young punks at Google to stand on principle or conviction?

What if some rogue government agency got a subpoena for Google's data on you? Do you think Google would ever stand up for its customers in the face of pressure – especially in light of its utter moral capitulation to Beijing?

Let me put it simply: Google is out of control. Google is an amoral corporate giant only too happy to do the bidding of evil governments. Google needs to understand there's a cost to raping and pillaging your privacy rights.

It's time to grab these rich kids by the scruff of the neck and give them a wake-up call.

What do I want to do tomorrow?

Rein in the ogling, voyeuristic peeping toms of the Silicon Valley.

Yes, that means you, Eric Schmidt!

[Soldier4Christ]

More evidence of Google's 'evil'?
Kids' search engine battle's company's 'big time' porn business

Like David taking on Goliath, an upstart Internet search engine for parents of small children is battling giant Google over its proliferation of pornography.

It's the latest evidence of "incredibly poor moral decisions by Google," says Joseph Farah, author of "Stop The Presses! The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution," a book in which he characterizes the Internet's most successful company as "evil."

KinderStart.com, a search engine for parents of children up to 7, has filed an appeal to the 9th Circuit, announcing it will continue its legal fight with Google, which refuses users access to KinderStart.

KinderStart demands Google remove all pornography from its index.

Interestingly, Google injected pornography into the case by declaring in open court that KinderStart was "rife with porn" and declared this was the reason for the ban of the site.

According to Dr. Victor Goodman, KinderStart's spokesman, just the opposite is true.

"KinderStart, since 2000, has provided a safe haven for parents and children from the pornography that infests the Internet and specifically the Google index," he said. "Google may well be the largest repository of pornographic information and sites in the history of man."

Goodman says Google profits in the untold millions of dollars annually by selling ads that lead to pornographic websites.

"Thus Google makes huge income from pornography of all sorts," he said. "Google is in the porn business big time and on an annual basis may generate more money from links and ads to and for pornography than any other company."

Meanwhile, KinderStart says it has never derived a penny from that trade "and never will."

"There are no pornographic links on KinderStart, and if it is ever spammed with un-seemly content it is removed the minute that we become aware of it," said Goodman.

Besides battling in court, KinderStart is making a public appeal to parents to demand that Google remove all sites that link to pornography or place a warning stating that it promotes pornography.

KinderStart further alleges Google actually rewards many porn sites with high page ranks and claims that a higher page rank equals important high quality websites.

"Please help us fight Google in the courts and in the court of public opinion, so that we may stop Google's public display of pornographic links, ads and images to our children and young adults," said Goodman. "We need dollars to fight this 'evil empire' that sees no wrong in corrupting our youth. ... it must be stopped!"

Ironically, Google's company motto is "Don't be evil."

In "Stop The Presses," Farah makes what he says is the most definitive moral case against Google, with the following indictments:

    * The company refuses to give the U.S. government records of impersonal data regarding searches that threaten no one, but happily provides information about potential dissidents to the tyrannical, repressive dictators in Beijing.

    * The company disregards commemorations of national American holidays such as Memorial Day, but never forgets to remind users about Halloween and Earth Day.

    * The company has refused to link to some news sources critical of radical Islam, but hosts blogs containing homosexual pornography.

    * The company hosts blogs promoting "boy love" and sexual relationships between men and adolescents, but it refuses to run ads from a Christian ministry to homosexuals.

    * The company's top executive presides over a business that makes it easy to find out nearly anything about anyone, but protests when people use his service to find out about him.

    * The company has blocked ads attacking Bill and Hillary Clinton, but welcomes ads attacking President Bush and other Republican leaders.

    * The company, apparently in its bid to romance Beijing, wiped Taiwan, an independent and free island nation, off the face of its Internet maps.

    * The company, one of the great free enterprise success stories of the decade, gives nearly all of its political donations to those who seek to rein in and regulate capitalism.

[Soldier4Christ]

Google's 'evil' agenda exposed in new book
Supports Democratic Party, bans 'democracy' searches in China

Google censors China criticism in U.S.
Web site owner just wants to buy advertising for his work

Internet search engine Google, which WND reported earlier censors its search results in China to meet government demands, now is censoring criticism of China in the United States, according to one website owner.

WND has documented that Google already disregards commemorations of national American holidays such as Memorial Day but honors China's year of the pig, has refused to link to news sources critical of radical Islam but hosts blogs containing homosexual pornography, hosts blogs promoting "boy love" and sexual relationships between men and adolescents but refuses to run ads from a Christian ministry to homosexuals, and has blocked ads attacking Bill and Hillary Clinton but welcomes ads attacking President Bush and other Republican leaders.

Now website owner Chris Langdon said he found out that Google censors criticism of China within the United States, after he launched his ChinaIsEvil site and was denied permission to purchase advertising on the search engine.

His site lobbies against the continued financial support for China by the purchase of products and the location of business ventures there. He notes that his opposition is to the oppressive government in China, not the population itself.

"Not all Chinese people are evil, of course. Many in China want more freedom, as evidenced by Tiananmen Square. However, the Communist Chinese government has been, and is, a murderous one. The Communist Chinese slaughtered millions during the Chinese Revolution. After coming to power they murdered thousands of landowners after mock trials. Subsequently, Communist China invaded Tibet and murdered a million Tibetans," the site says.

It also lists China's help in North Korea's invasion of South Korea, the estimates of up to 40 million dead during the "Great Leap Forward," the millions of deaths during the "Cultural Revolution," and the nation's influence in Viet Nam.

"As long ago as 1971, in a study done for Congress, Professor Richard L. Walker, in 'The Human Cost of Communism in China' noted that Beijing was responsible for the deaths of between 34.3 million and 63.8 million people … [in 1995] European historian Jean Louis Margolin … stated that Chinese Communism took the lives of 44.5 million to 72 million people…," the site notes.

"COMMUNIST CHINA HAS MURDERED MILLIONS – BOYCOTT CHINA," the website says.

However, Langdon says Google, as well as Yahoo! and Microsoft, have refused to allow him to advertise.

"It is well known that Google and Yahoo! allow the Communist Chinese government to censor information that appears on their search results in China. Few know that Google censors its search results in America, and its advertising, in a decidedly arbitrary, unfair manner," said Langdon.

He said he asked for permission to buy ads for his site.

"I waited a week, asked them several times, but they would not give me a response," he told WND. "It was like a pocket veto; they weren't going to come out and say you can't advertise, they just said they hadn't made up their minds."

"They don't want to offend Communist China," he said. "I'm not talking about censoring in China. I'm talking about in America, they censor in America."

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang has said in published remarks that cooperating with Chinese officials is the cost of participating in the Internet business in that nation.

"It is more important for us to participate, not only for economic reasons, but to be able to [help shape where the industry is going]," he said, after his company was accused of giving the Chinese government evidence that led to prison sentences for two Chinese Internet users.

"They allow advertising for Hitler. You can download a copy of Mein Kampf. I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to read that. But they can advertise Hitler's book, they can advertise Mao's Little Red Book, and 'Das Kapital,' but I can't advertise," he said.

His site does show up in certain specific searches, such as hunting for "China" and "evil" at the same time. Hunting just for "China" leaves him unmentioned.

"The main thing is they will not let me advertise," he told WND.

Langdon blames the "perspective" on financial interests.

"Many business leaders and politicians want us to overlook Chinese Communist atrocities and human rights abuses, past and present, because of perceived business opportunities in China," he said. "China official holds about $550 billion of our debt, second only to Japan. However, they have also purchased large amounts of our debt privately, therefore, the true amount they hold is much greater."

Langdon said he was told Google policy does not allow websites to promote "violence or advocate against a protected group. But he noted one of Google's other advertisers features products with titles such as "Zionist/Fascist/Satanist-George W. Bush," "A Cuban I'd Like to Smoke," "I Slap Feminists for Fun" and "I Do Not Brake for Turbans."

"MSN never ran my ad for my China site and offered no explanation as to why it didn't. Yahoo refused to run any of my ads, purportedly because my websites aren't hosted by them," Langdon said.

One chapter of "Stop The Presses," the newest book from WND founder Joseph Farah, also makes the case over Google's decisions.

The company, he noted, refused to cooperate with the U.S. government hunting for patterns of information searches involving child pornography. But then it agreed to censor its search results in China in exchange for more access to the world's fastest-growing Internet market.

"You can be sure no one in China will be able to Google the content of, say, WorldNetDaily.com," writes Farah. "To get the Chinese license, Google agreed to omit Web content that the country's government finds objectionable. Incredibly, Google will base its censorship decisions on guidance provided by Chinese government officials. In other words, in case you don't yet see the point, Google flouts reasonable government requests designed to protect children from the emotional and spiritual ravages of porn, but accedes without protest to the demands of dictators only interested in denying their people information."

E-mail and telephone messages left with Google were not returned immediately.

[Soldier4Christ]

Fed up with Google? Try Scroogle.org
Powerful search tool without privacy violations

As more Internet users grow cautious about Google's seemingly unquenchable desire for the private, personal data of its users, one entrepreneur is using the search engine giant's own algorithms to offer consumers a choice.

It's called Scroogle – located at Scroogle.org – and offers searchers all the power of Google but none of the privacy concerns.

One of Google's fiercest critics is Daniel Brandt. He runs Google Watch, which, among other things, tracks the growing number of privacy concerns about the company and its practices.

His latest endeavor, however, actually offers Internet users the opportunity to use Google's powerful search tools without personal data being collected by the company.

Scroogle filters searches through Brandt's servers before hitting Google. It effectively hides the address of the searcher.

Brandt says he doesn't save the search terms and deletes all his logs every week. Google, on the other hand, saves records on Internet searches for two years.

Scroogle has become the choice of Internet civil libertarians like Kurt Opshal, staff attorney for Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Last week, Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said his company's goal for the future is to maximize the personal information it holds on users.

"The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'"

Schmidt fretted: "We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don't know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google's expansion."

Privacy concerns are not the only controversy causing Internet users to look for alternatives for their searches.

For the ninth year in a row, Google this week declined to mark Memorial Day with one of its trademarked holiday logo modifications – something the company has done for the Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, Halloween and other observances that have nothing to do with American patriotism or commemorations of military service or war dead.

Google has, in the past, highlighted special honors for Percival Lowell, Edvard Munch and Louis Braille. Lowell was an astronomer, Munch an artist, and Braille developed Braille writing for the blind.

But while the rest of the nation marked Memorial Day, Google did not.

Other days that have been honored have included National Teachers Day, Women's Day, Ray Charles' birthday, World Water Day and St. George's Day.

Besides overlooking Veterans Day and Memorial Day since the company's inception in 1999, it also has ignored Christmas.

It has caused some, like WND's Joseph Farah, to question whether Google is living up to its corporate motto, "Don't Be Evil."

In his latest book, "Stop The Presses! The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution," Farah characterizes the search giant as just that – evil.

Of particular concern to Farah is Google's policy of appeasement to the Chinese totalitarian government, which required company officials to ensure search results in that country would be limited to conform with Communist Party guidelines.

He devotes an entire chapter in his book to making the case that Google is an immoral company.

[Soldier4Christ]

While I personally could care less who knows where I have been on the internet or what I am searching for I do care about security issues with my computer. I don't want others being able to access my computer and possiblity cause a lot of problems with it. The Google toolbar does just that, it allows a massive security risk.

In conjunction with Scroogle over 500 others have compiled a nine point list as to why they have nominated Google with the "Big Brother Award" in 2003 (and these reasons have not changed since then):

    1.   Google's immortal cookie:
    Google was the first search engine to use a cookie that expires in 2038. This was at a time when federal websites were prohibited from using persistent cookies altogether. Now it's years later, and immortal cookies are commonplace among search engines; Google set the standard because no one bothered to challenge them. This cookie places a unique ID number on your hard disk. Anytime you land on a Google page, you get a Google cookie if you don't already have one. If you have one, they read and record your unique ID number.

    2.   Google records everything they can:
    For all searches they record the cookie ID, your Internet IP address, the time and date, your search terms, and your browser configuration. Increasingly, Google is customizing results based on your IP number. This is referred to in the industry as "IP delivery based on geolocation."

    3.   Google retains all data indefinitely:
    Google has no data retention policies. There is evidence that they are able to easily access all the user information they collect and save.

    4.   Google won't say why they need this data:
    Inquiries to Google about their privacy policies are ignored. When the New York Times (2002-11-28) asked Sergey Brin about whether Google ever gets subpoenaed for this information, he had no comment.

    5.   Google hires spooks:
    Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency. Google wants to hire more people with security clearances, so that they can peddle their corporate assets to the spooks in Washington.

    6.   Google's toolbar is spyware:
    With the advanced features enabled, Google's free toolbar for Explorer phones home with every page you surf, and yes, it reads your cookie too. Their privacy policy confesses this, but that's only because Alexa lost a class-action lawsuit when their toolbar did the same thing, and their privacy policy failed to explain this. Worse yet, Google's toolbar updates to new versions quietly, and without asking. This means that if you have the toolbar installed, Google essentially has complete access to your hard disk every time you connect to Google (which is many times a day). Most software vendors, and even Microsoft, ask if you'd like an updated version. But not Google. Any software that updates automatically presents a massive security risk.

    7.   Google's cache copy is illegal:
    Judging from Ninth Circuit precedent on the application of U.S. copyright laws to the Internet, Google's cache copy appears to be illegal. The only way a webmaster can avoid having his site cached on Google is to put a "noarchive" meta in the header of every page on his site. Surfers like the cache, but webmasters don't. Many webmasters have deleted questionable material from their sites, only to discover later that the problem pages live merrily on in Google's cache. The cache copy should be "opt-in" for webmasters, not "opt-out."

    8.   Google is not your friend:
    By now Google enjoys a 75 percent monopoly for all external referrals to most websites. Webmasters cannot avoid seeking Google's approval these days, assuming they want to increase traffic to their site. If they try to take advantage of some of the known weaknesses in Google's semi-secret algorithms, they may find themselves penalized by Google, and their traffic disappears. There are no detailed, published standards issued by Google, and there is no appeal process for penalized sites. Google is completely unaccountable. Most of the time Google doesn't even answer email from webmasters.

    9.   Google is a privacy time bomb:
    With 200 million searches per day, most from outside the U.S., Google amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Those newly-commissioned data-mining bureaucrats in Washington can only dream about the sort of slick efficiency that Google has already achieved.