I’ve Worked at Google for Decades. I’m Sickened by What It’s Doing.

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Tea@programming.dev⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/google-employee-speaks-out-war-contracting/

For the first time, I feel driven to speak publicly, because our company is now powering state violence across the globe.

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Comments

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mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Aaaaand she’s fired.

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- eager_eagle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  After 20y of equity I think she’ll be fine.
  
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- Jinx@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Or worse, “accidentally” fell out of the window. Crazy times.
  
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einfach_orangensaft@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
“Dont be evil” was never a promise it always had been a warning to the users.

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Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Can’t be many of us who thought the web search engine company would turn into the killbot company.

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- Aceofspades@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  I got a little suspicious when they stopped using “Don’t be evil”.
  
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  - LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    At least they didn’t keep up the farce and exaggerate it: “Don’t be evil. Ever. We’re still not evil. Nuh uh, nope.”
    
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- edg@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Yup, but arund the time they came out with Google Desktop I started to wonder what the future held.
  
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rolling@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
She is still working there. Yeah, sure, maybe she is taking a risk now that her name is out there publicly criticizing, but this article is just for her to feel good about herself. “But look guys, I think Google sucks too, I am not bad like them. I just help them accomplish their goals and get paid for it 🙃”

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- BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  She could have said nothing and kept quiet like the thousands of other workers at Google, this could not only get her fired but maybe even blacklisted in the industry, that’s far more than you’ve ever done or will ever do to bring attention to this issue, so how about you keep that cynicism in check.
  
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  - primemagnus@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    100% will get her fired. 100%. Not now as it’s too connectable to the post she made, but in 6 months, they’ll find a reason to can her that can’t be traced to this.
    
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  - easily3667@lemmus.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Well she’s been working their since 2005. So she doesn’t need the job. Or money. Or anything. She’s just there.
    
    Maybe you’re the one who should keep the cynicism in check if you think people who have every they could ever have wanted and have benefited on the evil deeds of their employer to the tune of millions and millions of dollars wouldn’t speak out.
    
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  - rolling@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Ohh nooo. Poor her with all the stock options she got while working there from basically their startup days. Whatever this poor damsel will do with 20+ years of experience working in one of the biggest tech companies in the world.
    
    I might not have the platform to bring attention to this issue, but hey, at least I don’t actively help them, do their work and then reap the benefits of all the evil they do anyways.
    
    Unlike her, my issues with Google does not end with the Israel issue. Google is evil regardless if this single issue.
    
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- graff@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  If all the people who disagreed left, there would be no chance of opposition
  
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  - easily3667@lemmus.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    You can’t change things from the inside. A level 3 software developer isn’t changing what google is doing.
    
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  - rolling@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    The opposition comes from us, the consumers who refuse to use Google products.
    
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- primemagnus@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  I just pulled the levers in the gas chambers! I’m not a bad guy!!!
  
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  - CalipherJones@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    As if working at Google is remotely close to participating in the fucking Holocaust.
    
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  - skrlet13@feddit.cl ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    I understand your point, but that was insensitive
    
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const_void@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
If you still use Chrome uninstall it now

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echinacea@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Google/Alphabet’s previous CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt was best friends with Henry Kissinger.

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doingthestuff@lemy.lol ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
The author should have quit long ago. Many employees are complicit.

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- jdeath@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  all* employees
  
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- Pirata@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  They get paid 500k a year.
  
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  - doingthestuff@lemy.lol ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Yeah, I get paid 1/10th of that and I could do a lot better - and I used to - but I work for a nonprofit I care about. Greed is a hell of a drug.
    
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pelespirit@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Project Nimbus: wired.com/…/amazon-google-project-nimbus-israel-i…

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Jimmycakes@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Do they feel heartbreak over the millions of dollars in compensation and stock options they’ve collected in those decades? Easy to write piece like this and go back to your comfortable lifestyle and just feel the fuzzy feeling of speaking out about a bad guy.

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- FlyingSpaceCow@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  I’m still glad they wrote the piece.
  
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- CalipherJones@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Nothing is enough for guys that comment on the internet. Maybe they should post comments on lemmy. That’ll show the world.
  
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peoplebeproblems@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
An AI arms embargo sounds great.

How the fuck are you going to implement an arms embargo on software that is literally designed and developed and run on the cloud?

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- zarkanian@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  How do you literally develop from a cloud? Are jetpacks involved?
  
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  - peoplebeproblems@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Well. I can guarantee you those Chromebooks they make devs use are not doing the processing locally.
    
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nonentity@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
IBM : Nazi Party :: Google : IDF

techwontsave.us/…/235_no_tech_for_apartheid_w_moh…

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vane@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Project Maven started in 2017. Stop making evil people famous and expecting something will change.

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anachrohack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
So the author was fine with every other fucked up, privacy invading, monopolistic practice from Google, but it was a tenuous relationship with Israel that they can’t forgive?

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- diffusive@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  As much I care about privacy and free market, I still consider war or genocide to be worse. Call me crazy 🤷‍♂️
  
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- Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Listen pal, I was fine with invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands, but I draw the line at France!
  
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- coffeeismydrug@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  i mean monopolistic and privacy invading versus associating with something that is slaughtering women and children in their own land, it’s not the same in my opinion.
  
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- Aux@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Privacy should not exist.
  
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Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
It’s not the same google.

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- jdeath@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  always has been
  
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Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I degoogled for the first time two days ago aaaaand, it’s actually way easier than I expected and actually, dare I say… fun?

Fun in that I have new apps to try, all over the place. I spent that whole evening combing f-droid for everything I need and got it all sorted out.

SMS? Backed up Contacts? Backed up Photos? Syncthing’d Passwords? I’m a card carrying Keepass user. Music? Pulled down my streaming service from Aurora and it just works. Email? Thunderbird’d’d Cloud? Mini PC’d and NFS’d Google? Gone and not missed.

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- lud@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  
  Email? Thunderbird’d’d Thunderbird is only a mail client. Don’t forget to actually move from gmail if you want to degoogle.
  
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  - Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    I got that disroot joint, homie. My googs is only temporary while I slowly migrate the sites I have it registered to.
    
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azha@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Ive been using Vivaldi for over 3 years and never been happier plus I don’t have any google account and degoogled my devices.

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- zarkanian@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Vivaldi is closed-source, and it still uses Google’s engine. Good for you for moving away from Google, but you have much better options available to you: FireDragon, Zen, and the rest of the Mozilla browsers.
  
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- Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  For me? It’s Qwant and <INSERT FIREFOX FORK>.
  
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disconnectikacio@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Google is evil

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- 2910000@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  I remember getting a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when Google removed “Don’t be evil” from their Code of Conduct
  
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  - ragas@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Why else would you need to remove that phrase unless you wanted to do something bad?
    
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Fades@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Absolute monsters, they need to be culled, removed from power and influence.

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Letsdothisok@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Googlecide?

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UltraBlack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
How about yall start to be the change you want to see in the world and go to gaza and do something

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- Bob_Robertson_IX@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Animated GIF from Pink Floyd’s The Wall showing people walking into a meat grinder
  
  I don’t think providing more meat for the grinder will suddenly make anyone change their minds on the subject.
  
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  - emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    If they (the rich) dont grind your meat, they can’t have any pudding. How can they have any pudding if they don’t grind your meat?
    
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  - UltraBlack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Fighting on the inrernet has a negligible impact. The alternative is going to gaza.
    
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- zarkanian@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Don’t you think they could do more good in the USA, since they’re the ones paying for it?
  
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- Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  That idea go any further on the something other than “get shot and dragged into a van”?
  
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  - UltraBlack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Vandalising public spaces in your country will probably have about the same outcome
    
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MITM0@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
For some reason I don’t find her sudden change of heart convincing. & I am happy to know that the rest of you feel the same.

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