Senior Google Scientist Resigns Over “Forfeiture of Our Values” in China

The Intercept ^ | September 13 2018 | Ryan Gallagher

[FreedomPoster]

I know I get first page search results on DDG that I don’t see there on Google.

[Liz]

Poulson raised concerns that Google was secretly developing a Chinese search app for Android devices
designed to remove content that China’s authoritarian government does not like. Removing information about:

<><> political dissent,

<><> free speech,

<><> democracy,

<><> human rights,

<><> peaceful protest.

How convenient that Google had already designed that very same search app for Democrats.

Communist China can give thanks to Democrats and to Google.

[Liz]

GOOGLE’S SELFISH LEDGER IS AN UNSETTLING VISION OF SILICON VALLEY SOCIAL ENGINEERING
This internal video from 2016 shows a Google concept for how total data collection could reshape society
By Vlad Savov@vladsavov May 17, 2018

Google has built a multibillion-dollar business out of knowing everything about its users. Now, a video produced within Google and obtained by The Verge offers a stunningly ambitious and unsettling look at how some at the company envision using that information in the future. The video was made in late 2016 by Nick Foster, the head of design at X (formerly Google X) and a co-founder of the Near Future Laboratory. The video, shared internally within Google, imagines a future of total data collection, where Google helps nudge users into alignment with their goals, custom-prints personalized devices to collect more data, and even guides the behavior of entire populations to solve global problems like poverty and disease.

When reached for comment on the video, an X spokesperson provided the following statement to The Verge: “We understand if this is disturbing -- it is designed to be. This is a thought-experiment by the Design team from years ago that uses a technique known as ‘speculative design’ to explore uncomfortable ideas and concepts in order to provoke discussion and debate. It’s not related to any current or future products.”

All the data collected by your devices, the so-called ledger, is presented as a bundle of information that can be passed on to other users for the betterment of society. Titled The Selfish Ledger, the 9-minute film starts off with a history of Lamarckian epigenetics, which are broadly concerned with the passing on of traits acquired during an organism’s lifetime. Narrating the video, Foster acknowledges that the theory may have been discredited when it comes to genetics but says it provides a useful metaphor for user data. (The title is an homage to Richard Dawkins’ 1976 book The Selfish Gene.) The way we use our phones creates “a constantly evolving representation of who we are,” which Foster terms a “ledger,” positing that these data profiles could be built up, used to modify behaviors, and transferred from one user to another:

“User-centered design principles have dominated the world of computing for many decades, but what if we looked at things a little differently? What if the ledger could be given a volition or purpose rather than simply acting as a historical reference? What if we focused on creating a richer ledger by introducing more sources of information? What if we thought of ourselves not as the owners of this information, but as custodians, transient carriers, or caretakers?”--snip---rest at source

SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/17/17344250/google-x-selfish-ledger-video-data-privacy