Google: Difference between revisions

Line 11:

Google's search engine remains its most well-known service, but the company has significantly diversified its offerings.{{Citation needed}} Key products include the [[Android]] operating system, the [[Google Chrome]] web browser, [[Google Drive]] for cloud storage, [[Google Maps]], [[YouTube]], and [[Google Play]].<ref>https://about.google/intl/ALL_us/products/</ref>{{Citation needed}} Additionally, the company provides digital advertising services through Google Ads, generating the majority of its revenue.<ref>https://abc.xyz/assets/a3/91/6d1950c148fa84c7d699abe05284/2024q4-alphabet-earnings-release.pdf</ref>{{Citation needed}} In recent years, Google has also developed hardware products such as the Pixel smartphone and Nest smart home devices.{{Citation needed}}

Google has faced ongoing scrutiny related to data privacy, competition, and its dominant position in the market, such concerns have stretched as far back as 2012<ref>https://ideas.time.com/2012/03/05/will-we-ever-get-strong-internet-privacy-rules/</ref>~~{{Citation needed}}~~ The company has been the subject of various legal and regulatory challenges, particularly concerning antitrust issues, the use of personal data, and its impact on consumer choice.{{Citation needed}}

Google has faced ongoing scrutiny related to data privacy, competition, and its dominant position in the market, such concerns have stretched as far back as 2012.<ref>https://ideas.time.com/2012/03/05/will-we-ever-get-strong-internet-privacy-rules/</ref><ref>https://techoversight.org/2023/09/06/google-at-25/</ref> The company has been the subject of various legal and regulatory challenges, particularly concerning antitrust issues, the use of personal data, and its impact on consumer choice.{{Citation needed}} The US government is currently engaged in an antitrust lawsuit against Google, with a decision expected early 2025.<ref>https://www.usvgoogleads.com/trial-updates/closing-arguments-november-25-once-twice-three-times-a-monopolist</ref>

In December 2024, "Google announced to organisations that use its advertising products, that from 16 February 2025, it will no longer prohibit them from employing [[wikipedia:Fingerprint_(computing)|fingerprinting]] techniques."<ref>https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2024/12/our-response-to-google-s-policy-change-on-fingerprinting/</ref>

===Google Play Music shutdown===

Line 26:

Line 28:

Google Stadia controllers were limited to Wi-Fi connectivity, however upon shut down they started offering an update to allow them to connect through Bluetooth, the update service website was scheduled to shut down on the 31st December 2023.<ref>https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/bluetooth-support-for-google-stadia-controller-arrives-heres-how-to-enable-it-and-play-pc-games</ref>

=== reCAPTCHA ===

[[wikipedia:ReCAPTCHA|reCAPTCHA]] was acquired by Google in 2009 and has since been used to protect websites from [[wikipedia:Internet_bot|botting]], crowdsource transcription work, and to mass train Google's other technical ventures such as artificial intelligence.<ref>https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/teaching-computers-to-read-google.html</ref><ref>[https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/?hl=es/index.html#:~:text=Every%20time%20our%20CAPTCHAs%20are,and%20solve%20hard%20AI%20problems. https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/?hl=es/index.html#:~:text=Every%20time%20our%20CAPTCHAs%20are,and%20solve%20hard%20AI%20problems.]</ref> Google faced criticism over this crowdsourcing and training for using unpaid labor from millions of daily users around the world, even sparking an ultimately unsuccessful class action lawsuit in Massachusetts in 2015, with the court dismissing the amount of time spent by each user completing a CAPTCHA as "something for which [no] reasonable consumer would expect to receive compensation".<ref>https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1904&context=historical</ref><ref>https://casetext.com/case/rojas-lozano-ex-rel-all-other-persons-similarly-situated-v-google-inc</ref>

A video published by YouTube channel CHUPPL sparked renewed controversy with a video released in December 2024. The video cites and details how reCAPTCHA [[wikipedia:Doxing|doxxes]] users and how resulting user data can end up in the hands of the US government for unknown purposes, claiming exploitation of an intentional loophole in Google's terms of service allowing them to transmit user device and application data under the guise of "general security purposes."<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTsBP21-XpI&t=306s</ref> User data allegedly began being collected in 2014, when Google deployed reCAPTCHA v2, specifically the “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA” i.e. "the checkbox CAPTCHA," which primarily uses [[wikipedia:HTTP_cookie|cookies]] to whitelist users who reCAPTCHA identifies as humans. This opens up additional security vulnerabilities as once a user is identified as a human, a bot can take over and be given unrestricted access to all sites using reCAPTCHA without having to fill a CAPTCHA itself.<ref>https://homakov.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-no-captcha-problem.html</ref>

The type of cookies collected includes, but is not limited to:<ref name=":1">https://www.businessinsider.com/google-no-captcha-adtruth-privacy-research-2015-2</ref>

* Screen size and resolution, date, language, browser plug-ins, and all Javascript objects

* IP address

* CSS information from the page you are on

* A count of mouse and touch events

This digital fingerprinting is nearly inescapable even for privacy focused consumers since, as of November 2024, reCAPTCHA is employed in 84% of all websites.<ref>https://trends.builtwith.com/widgets/captcha</ref><blockquote>

"The implication is that Google isn’t just looking to identify whether you’re a human with its No CAPTCHA, but potentially exactly ''which human'' you are." - Lara O'Reilly<ref name=":1" />

</blockquote>A 2023 study collected data on newly admitted students to UC Irvine's School of Information & Computer Sciences over 13 months and concludes that reCAPTCHA does not provide real security for Google's client websites and has, over its 13 years of existence, cost users an estimated 819 million hours equating to nearly $6 billion USD in wages and 134 petabytes of bandwidth corresponding to 7.5 million pounds of CO<sub>2</sub>. The study further estimated Google's direct profits from reCAPTCHA to be "$888 billion USD from cookies and $8.75-32.3 billion USD per each sale of their total labeled data set."<ref name=":2">https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.10911</ref><blockquote>

"It can be concluded that the true purpose of reCAPTCHAv2 is as a tracking cookie farm for advertising profit masquerading as a security service." - Searles, Prapty, and Tsudik<ref name=":2" />

</blockquote>Google has also been accused of allowing reCAPTCHA to accept users running Chromium web browsers more frequently than alternatives.{{Citation needed}}

=References=

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 Google's search engine remains its most well-known service, but the company has significantly diversified its offerings.{{Citation needed}} Key products include the [[Android]] operating system, the [[Google Chrome]] web browser, [[Google Drive]] for cloud storage, [[Google Maps]], [[YouTube]], and [[Google Play]].<ref>https://about.google/intl/ALL_us/products/</ref>{{Citation needed}} Additionally, the company provides digital advertising services through Google Ads, generating the majority of its revenue.<ref>https://abc.xyz/assets/a3/91/6d1950c148fa84c7d699abe05284/2024q4-alphabet-earnings-release.pdf</ref>{{Citation needed}} In recent years, Google has also developed hardware products such as the Pixel smartphone and Nest smart home devices.{{Citation needed}}
-Google has faced ongoing scrutiny related to data privacy, competition, and its dominant position in the market, such concerns have stretched as far back as 2012<ref>https://ideas.time.com/2012/03/05/will-we-ever-get-strong-internet-privacy-rules/</ref>{{Citation needed}} The company has been the subject of various legal and regulatory challenges, particularly concerning antitrust issues, the use of personal data, and its impact on consumer choice.{{Citation needed}}
+Google has faced ongoing scrutiny related to data privacy, competition, and its dominant position in the market, such concerns have stretched as far back as 2012.<ref>https://ideas.time.com/2012/03/05/will-we-ever-get-strong-internet-privacy-rules/</ref><ref>https://techoversight.org/2023/09/06/google-at-25/</ref> The company has been the subject of various legal and regulatory challenges, particularly concerning antitrust issues, the use of personal data, and its impact on consumer choice.{{Citation needed}} The US government is currently engaged in an antitrust lawsuit against Google, with a decision expected early 2025.<ref>https://www.usvgoogleads.com/trial-updates/closing-arguments-november-25-once-twice-three-times-a-monopolist</ref>
+In December 2024, "Google announced to organisations that use its advertising products, that from 16 February 2025, it will no longer prohibit them from employing [[wikipedia:Fingerprint_(computing)|fingerprinting]] techniques."<ref>https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2024/12/our-response-to-google-s-policy-change-on-fingerprinting/</ref>
 ===Google Play Music shutdown===
@@ Line 26: / Line 28: @@
 Google Stadia controllers were limited to Wi-Fi connectivity, however upon shut down they started offering an update to allow them to connect through Bluetooth, the update service website was scheduled to shut down on the 31st December 2023.<ref>https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/bluetooth-support-for-google-stadia-controller-arrives-heres-how-to-enable-it-and-play-pc-games</ref>
+=== reCAPTCHA ===
+[[wikipedia:ReCAPTCHA|reCAPTCHA]] was acquired by Google in 2009 and has since been used to protect websites from [[wikipedia:Internet_bot|botting]], crowdsource transcription work, and to mass train Google's other technical ventures such as artificial intelligence.<ref>https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/teaching-computers-to-read-google.html</ref><ref>[https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/?hl=es/index.html#:~:text=Every%20time%20our%20CAPTCHAs%20are,and%20solve%20hard%20AI%20problems. https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/?hl=es/index.html#:~:text=Every%20time%20our%20CAPTCHAs%20are,and%20solve%20hard%20AI%20problems.]</ref> Google faced criticism over this crowdsourcing and training for using unpaid labor from millions of daily users around the world, even sparking an ultimately unsuccessful class action lawsuit in Massachusetts in 2015, with the court dismissing the amount of time spent by each user completing a CAPTCHA as "something for which [no] reasonable consumer would expect to receive compensation".<ref>https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1904&context=historical</ref><ref>https://casetext.com/case/rojas-lozano-ex-rel-all-other-persons-similarly-situated-v-google-inc</ref>
+A video published by YouTube channel CHUPPL sparked renewed controversy with a video released in December 2024. The video cites and details how reCAPTCHA [[wikipedia:Doxing|doxxes]] users and how resulting user data can end up in the hands of the US government for unknown purposes, claiming exploitation of an intentional loophole in Google's terms of service allowing them to transmit user device and application data under the guise of "general security purposes."<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTsBP21-XpI&t=306s</ref> User data allegedly began being collected in 2014, when Google deployed reCAPTCHA v2, specifically the “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA” i.e. "the checkbox CAPTCHA," which primarily uses [[wikipedia:HTTP_cookie|cookies]] to whitelist users who reCAPTCHA identifies as humans. This opens up additional security vulnerabilities as once a user is identified as a human, a bot can take over and be given unrestricted access to all sites using reCAPTCHA without having to fill a CAPTCHA itself.<ref>https://homakov.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-no-captcha-problem.html</ref>
+The type of cookies collected includes, but is not limited to:<ref name=":1">https://www.businessinsider.com/google-no-captcha-adtruth-privacy-research-2015-2</ref>
+* Screen size and resolution, date, language, browser plug-ins, and all Javascript objects
+* IP address
+* CSS information from the page you are on
+* A count of mouse and touch events
+This digital fingerprinting is nearly inescapable even for privacy focused consumers since, as of November 2024, reCAPTCHA is employed in 84% of all websites.<ref>https://trends.builtwith.com/widgets/captcha</ref><blockquote>
+ "The implication is that Google isn’t just looking to identify whether you’re a human with its No CAPTCHA, but potentially exactly ''which human'' you are." - Lara O'Reilly<ref name=":1" />
+</blockquote>A 2023 study collected data on newly admitted students to UC Irvine's School of Information & Computer Sciences over 13 months and concludes that reCAPTCHA does not provide real security for Google's client websites and has, over its 13 years of existence, cost users an estimated 819 million hours equating to nearly $6 billion USD in wages and 134 petabytes of bandwidth corresponding to 7.5 million pounds of CO<sub>2</sub>. The study further estimated Google's direct profits from reCAPTCHA to be "$888 billion USD from cookies and $8.75-32.3 billion USD per each sale of their total labeled data set."<ref name=":2">https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.10911</ref><blockquote>
+ "It can be concluded that the true purpose of reCAPTCHAv2 is as a tracking cookie farm for advertising profit masquerading as a security service." - Searles, Prapty, and Tsudik<ref name=":2" />
+</blockquote>Google has also been accused of allowing reCAPTCHA to accept users running Chromium web browsers more frequently than alternatives.{{Citation needed}}
 =References=