NORM SOLOMON: Google quietly joins ALEC

[yurbud]

Roots Action has a petition to tell Google and other internet firms to get out.
In the mean time, can anyone suggest some OTHER search engines to use instead of Google?

NOTE: This article must be getting a lot of traffic because it took a while to load even though it's not image heavy or anything of the like, so be patient.

Quietly, Google has joined ALEC -- the American Legislative Exchange Council -- the shadowy corporate alliance that pushes odious laws through state legislatures.

In the process, Google has signed onto an organization that promotes such regressive measures as tax cuts for tobacco companies, school privatization to help for-profit education firms, repeal of state taxes for the wealthy and opposition to renewable energy disliked by oil companies.

ALEC’s reactionary efforts -- thoroughly documented by the Center for Media and Democracy -- are shameful assaults on democratic principles. And Google is now among the hundreds of companies in ALEC. Many people who’ve admired Google are now wondering: how could this be?

***

McChesney adds: “Any qualms about privacy, commercialism, avoiding taxes, or paying low wages to Third World factory workers were quickly forgotten. It is not that the managers are particularly bad and greedy people -- indeed their individual moral makeup is mostly irrelevant -- but rather that the system sharply rewards some types of behavior and penalizes other types of behavior so that people either get with the program and internalize the necessary values or they fail.”

http://www.normansolomon.com/norman_solomon/2013/10/google-doing-evil-with-alec.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Well, there goes my gmail.

Sane alternatives to Google:
Ixquick ( total privacy is an option)
Duc duck go..sounds nutz, but it works and keeps NO records of searches
and
Startpage..".the worlds's most private search engine."
which I prefer.

StartPage gives you 100% real Google results in complete privacy.
When you search with Startpage, we remove all identifying information from your query and submit it anonymously to Google for you. We get the results and return them to you in total privacy.

https://startpage.com/

[yurbud]

2. excellent. How about mail alternatives?

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I just posted that very question

with a link to your story,here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101675564#top

[proverbialwisdom]

5. Did public outcry fail?

http://action.sumofus.org/a/alec-facebook-google-yelp/

[starroute]

13. Startpage sounds worth trying

I've tried DuckDuckGo, but it tends to give me one page of results and then a link to continue my search at Google or Bing. It's fine if you're looking for the obvious stuff but not for anything at all obscure.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Startpage submits your search anonymously to Google

and is just as fast.
It keeps NO data of your visit.
I have it now as my homepage, to remind me.

[Jefferson23]

17. Thank you, I'm going to check that out. n/t

[proverbialwisdom]

3. K&R.

Last edited Fri Oct 11, 2013, 02:56 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.freepress.net/blog/2013/10/03/tech-titans-jump-shark

Tech Titans Jump the Shark
Amy Kroin
October 3, 2013

...Imagine if Superman paid Lex Luthor to help him stamp out kryptonite. He could rationalize the association by saying the end justified the means. But at that point he wouldn’t be Superman any longer. He would be Ethically Compromised Man.

In the last year, nearly 50 corporations — including Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, Pepsi and Wal-Mart — have left ALEC, in part because the organization came under such critical scrutiny after the Trayvon Martin shooting.

It’s time for Facebook, Google and Yelp to jump ship. Join our friends at ColorofChange.org and Sum of Us in telling these tech titans to drop their membership in ALEC.

[Aeroette]

12. Thanks for that info.

I signed the petition at sum of us.org.

[snagglepuss]

6. k and r

[corkhead]

7. Maybe they're going to try to steer ALEC into being a force for good

[Ikonoklast]

10. By putting them into a Google autonomous drive vehicle, and then running it off a cliff?

Hmmm.

[2naSalit]

8. K&R

That's going to be an issue finding another email provider that isn't screwing us.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. Try Opera

The browser is fast, I have it loaded and usually use it for only its email.
I am now going to open a 2nd email account on it to replace my Gmail account.

[2naSalit]

18. Thanks

I'll try that. Problem is informing all my contacts, more pain in the hindquarters than anything but...

[cui bono]

9. Alt search engine: duckduckgo.com

Heard about it on Thom Hartmann's show. https://duckduckgo.com/

Funny thing is, after you get your search results, if you click on the down arrow to the right of the search entry box and select something like "news" it then takes you to google's page with the news stories from your search. So... eh. Still, I use it for my first go around. I believe they don't skew your results based on your browsing history like google apparently does, so you get more variation of stories/sites on the search topic. That's what I remember Hartmann saying.

[SDjack]

11. I use duckduckgo search engine and Opera mail. Still have work remaining to switch

out of Google mail.

[Vincardog]

26. I use duckduckgo search engine for anonymous searches

[Jefferson23]

16. K&R

[Flying Squirrel]

19. I used to use Scroogle Scraper.. here is an article from last year

Which gives some options:

http://www.online-super-woman.com/2012/03/16/our-beloved-scroogle-scraper-is-gone-here-are-some-alternatives/

[Uncle Joe]

20. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, yurbud.

[4dsc]

21. duckduckgo.com is the alternative to google

I use most of the time now.

[duke-rules]

22. GET OFF GOOGLE AND ONTO DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a decent search engine without all Google's bells & whistles that doesn't collect all your private info and, how should I say it, DOESN'T DO EVIL!

I still mix the two, but with this latest info on Google my wife and I will be making much, much more use of DuckDuckGo.

Hope it works for you AND me!

[jsr]

24. Recommend

[Bill USA]

25. signed. recommended

[Laelth]

27. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth