Tag: google

  • Why Android Pay isn’t really about payments at all

    PYMNTS.com wrote about why Android Pay isn’t really about payments at all. Which means that it has a huge fragmentation problem staring it right in the face – a huge obstacle when trying to replicate an Apple-like strategy. At its launch, Google announced that Android Pay would be supported on devices running KitKat and higher.…

  • Google eavesdropping tool installed on computers without permission

    The Guardian reported on Google’s eavesdropping tool installed without permission. “Without consent, Google’s code had downloaded a black box of code that – according to itself – had turned on the microphone and was actively listening to your room,” said Rick Falkvinge, the Pirate party founder, in a blog post. “Which means that your computer…

  • Apple versus Google

    Om Malik wrote on The New Yorker about Apple versus Google. Earlier this month, talking to an audience at an event organized by EPIC, a not-for-profit civil rights and privacy group, the Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook said: I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built…

  • Why not Google

    Marco Arment wrote about Google. We agree on the broad strokes, but the reason I choose to minimize Google’s access to me is that my balance of utility versus ethical comfort is different. Both companies do have flaws, but they’re different flaws, and I tolerate them differently: Apple is always arrogant, controlling, and inflexible, and…

  • How NSA and allies exploit Google and Samsung app stores

    Ars Technica reported on how the NSA and allies exploited Google and Samsung’s app stores. In 2011 and 2012, the NSA and the communications intelligence agencies of its “Five Eyes” allies developed and tested a set of add-ons to their shared Internet surveillance capability that could identify and target communications between mobile devices and popular…

  • Millions of Android phones don’t completely wipe data

    Allie Coyne reported for iTnews about Android’s factory reset flaw. Twenty-six second-hand Android phones running versions 2.3 to 4.3 of the operating system, sold by five handset makers, were tested. The researchers found that all retained at least partial amounts of data from contacts information, images and video, SMS, email, and data from third-party apps…

  • Safari users win right to sue Google over privacy

    BBC reported on Safari users winning the right to sue Google over privacy. The case revolves around a so-called Safari workaround, which allegedly allowed Google to avoid the Safari web browser’s default privacy setting to place cookies, that gathered data such as surfing habits, social class, race, ethnicity, without users’ knowledge. Users prefer Safari because…

  • Google is practically begging Firefox users to switch their default search engine

    Search Engine Land reported on Google begging Firefox users to switch their default search engine. Why would Google give up the top two-plus inches of its search results page like this? It goes back to the November announcement that Mozilla was dropping Google in favor of Yahoo as the default search engine in its Firefox…

  • What does Google need on mobile?

    Benedict Evans wrote about what Google needs on mobile. Over time Android has also evolved to provide reach in collecting data as well – you’re always logged in to Google on your Android phone, and it knows where you are when you do that search or open that app, and where everyone else who ever…

  • Inside the US antitrust probe of Google

    WSJ reported on the US antitrust probe of Google. In discussing one of the issues the FTC staff wanted to sue over, the report said the company illegally took content from rival websites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to improve its own websites. It cited one instance when Google copied Amazon’s sales…