Free Republic

Google and internet rights groups have called on Congress to weigh in on spyware, asking for sanctions and increased enforcement against so-called legit surveillanceware makers. During an open House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, US lawmakers heard testimony from Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton; Shane Huntley, who leads Google's Threat Analysis Group; and Carine Kanimba, whose father was the inspiration for Hotel Rwanda and who was, herself, targeted by Pegasus spyware. This, of course, is the now-infamous malware that its developer, Israel's NSO Group, claims is only sold to legitimate government agencies — not private companies or individuals. Once...

Google said late Friday that it will work to quickly delete location history for people going to abortion sites and other medical sites following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last week. “Today, we’re announcing that if our systems identify that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit,” wrote Jen Fitzpatrick, Google’s senior vice president of core systems and experiences, in a blog post.

Gaming Google’s search algorithms is an art form that few have mastered, although many have claimed otherwise. The fact is, those algorithms are proprietary information and are tailored to the individual user. Democrats and abortionists are angry at how Google’s search engine allows some pregnant women to escape the clutches of abortionists by listing links to “pregnancy crisis centers” instead of NARAL-approved abortion providers. The crisis centers use standard Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, so it’s inevitable that at least some organizations trying to steer pregnant women away from abortion would end up grouped on the same page with those...

Google opted against highlighting the 78th anniversary of D-Day on its search engine’s “Google Doodle” on Monday, choosing instead to present an animation celebrating the birthday of Angelo Moriondo, the investor of the espresso machine. “Today’s coffee-stained Google Doodle is in honor of Angelo Moriondo, the Italian innovator who created the espresso machine,” noted 9to5Google of the search engine’s accompanied espresso-themed animation. The Masters of the Universe completely ignored that June 6 is also the anniversary of the D-Day invasion, a pivotal moment of World War II

Last month, Google announced a massive planned acquisition of the cybersecurity firm, Mandiant. The $5.4 billion purchase comes as part of a concerted effort on Google’s part to better protect its customers. More specifically, the acquisition will be targeted at both growing and securing Google’s cloud services. Given the recent hacks of U.S. government agencies and critical infrastructure, it is more important for large companies like Google to strengthen their cybersecurity than ever before. Unfortunately, new, aggressive antitrust regulators at the Department of Justice have already announced a probe into the merger. Further, a number of proposals currently in the...

The Rumble app on my Android phone is downloading slow and won't play video. Same thing when I go to their website through the Opera browser. But it works fine through Roku. Anyone else having this issue?

An apparent rip-off of Donald Trump’s social media network Truth Social has racked up downloads in the six figures on Google’s Play Store, causing confusion by MAGA types who failed to realize the distinction. Insider first reported that the app, which is titled “MAGA Hub — Truth Social Trump” on the Play Store, has crossed 100,000 downloads as of Tuesday. While the app itself was launched in August 2021, well before news broke that Trump was pursuing the “Truth” branding for his social network, most of the downloads appear to have been in the last few weeks. Trump Media &...

Anybody using Chromium 98.0.4758.102 (Official Build) snap (64-bit) My son upgraded it last night for me. There are things I need google search results for and ... When I type in search box I see the cursor move, and invisible typing occurs. The drop down suggestions appear incomplete. If I am searching for btc. I see an invisible position in the text box and the suggestions appear "itcoin, etc. The first character is invisible, even in the suggestion drop down. Upgrades: One step forward, three step back.

In October, Thea-Mai Baumann, an Australian artist and technologist, found herself sitting on prime internet real estate. In 2012, she had started an Instagram account with the handle @metaverse, a name she used in her creative work. On the account, she documented her life in Brisbane, where she studied fine art, and her travels to Shanghai, where she built an augmented reality company called Metaverse Makeovers. She had fewer than 1,000 followers when Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, announced on Oct. 28 that it was changing its name. Henceforth, Facebook would be known as Meta, a reflection of its...

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki apologized to the LGBT community Monday for how the video-streaming site has handled anti-gay comments. “I know that the decisions we made was very hurtful to the LGBTQ community and that wasn’t our intention at all,” Wojcicki said during a tech industry conference in Arizona, according to USA Today. She was particularly referring to a recent controversy over comments made by conservative commentator Steven Crowder about Vox journalist Carlos Maza. Maza accused the conservative of inciting harassment and making derogatory comments about his ethnicity and sexuality. YouTube decided to demonetize Crowder's videos, but has refused to...

I started using Bing over Google as I was sick and tired of Google working with China's military, but not working with ours. They ban gun videos on Youtube. They help authoritarian countries institute censorship in search results. All the while we use them and they make money off of us. Google is Evil. Bing rewards you for your searches no different than the credit card companies do with their rewards. Using Google with no rewards is akin to using a credit card with no rewards. And Microsoft actually is a patriotic company and does not kow tow to the...

A new Android app has launched with the focus of allowing Muslims to report individuals who commit blasphemy, or insult Islam. No, this is not a joke. The app, “Smart Pakem”, which launched in Indonesia last month at the request of the Indonesian government, will allow users and government officials to uphold Sharia law and target and report people who hold “misguided” beliefs in violation of Islamic law, which forbids insults of Islam, insults against the Prophet Mohammed, or the recognition of any other religion besides Islam.

Google has long ago pulled out all of the stops to remove European people from its collective history; now they have begun to rewrite European history so that it hardly contains any white Europeans. Do a Google Image Search for any positive term, such as shown below and all (or most) white europeans have been erased from the results page. Do a Google Image Search for negative terms like rapist, serial killer, robber, thief or murderer and there are only white people on the results page. Google Image Search Term: Europe History People Google Search Term: American Inventors Simply look...