Post B2uT6CDtv0dUpqqjCa by prolrage@todon.nl
(DIR) More posts by prolrage@todon.nl
(DIR) Post #B2uJsa29hBPf2amvaa by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2026-02-02T10:03:15Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
RE: https://mastodon.social/@JulianOliver/115998148761323898Wow… Google fined a whopping $68 MILLION DOLLARS for eavesdropping on people’s spoken conversations. That’ll teach them! It going to take Google a whole hour and a half to make that money back. I guess they won’t be pulling shit like this anymore after feeling that sort of pain. We really showed ‘em this time, eh?
(DIR) Post #B2uKmgWujKaFP9vbOq by adipoeserPursch@troet.cafe
2026-02-02T10:12:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral I'm picking up your sarcasm@nemo
(DIR) Post #B2uL5cVPuqxMQUFz3g by FlockOfCats@famichiki.jp
2026-02-02T10:16:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral big brain 🧠: change the “m” to a “b”Galaxy brain ✨🧠✨: make it an antitrust violation for the advertising company to also sell hardware that can eavesdrop on you in order to show you more ads
(DIR) Post #B2uNrBVXnSNSVB7mXh by aaron@social.caskey-demaret.se
2026-02-02T10:47:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral And if it pans like the Apple lawsuit, the affected users can look forward to google buying them a coffee in compensation.
(DIR) Post #B2uQXT0VKBZOqVtZY0 by TCatInReality@mastodon.social
2026-02-02T11:17:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral Which is why we need criminal liability for executives of companies that engage in illegal practices.
(DIR) Post #B2uRtNMh5AFzfkHkLw by micdan@mstdn.party
2026-02-02T11:32:51Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral I can't tell if it's sarcasm, but that's just a slap in their wrists. They'll continue spying on people anyway, because as I always say that crimes are legal if there's money involved (a.k.a fines).
(DIR) Post #B2uSBkOWCLUSJEtmpU by Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
2026-02-02T11:36:55.755551Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@aral google doesn't need to make the money back - they tend to just not pay, or just increase their prices and make the customers pay.
(DIR) Post #B2uT6CDtv0dUpqqjCa by prolrage@todon.nl
2026-02-02T11:46:35Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral they don't even pay these fines. https://todon.nl/@prolrage/113113105176517385
(DIR) Post #B2uawnkIM5RLwl25hY by dictatordave@poa.st
2026-02-02T13:15:05.218944Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral @JulianOliver they're doing it for intel and blackmailnot advertisingyou normie libshits are complete fucking retards
(DIR) Post #B2ug4qmDTAf5R0aYsa by Salmon@social.tchncs.de
2026-02-02T14:11:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral Slight correction from the article: it's a class action lawsuit settlement, not a fine, so no court proof or Gov punishment involved. I still don't trust google not to do eavesdrop though.
(DIR) Post #B2uiyyB9KqqGW78ebw by dusk@todon.eu
2026-02-02T14:44:22Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@aral Well said. Demand our journalists write headlines with “percentage of gross/net profits” or, like you use, “days/hours to recoup”Raw “amount paid” is largely meaningless at the scale at which these companies operate
(DIR) Post #B2uoAj1fzxbwld8Gxc by JorisMeys@mstdn.social
2026-02-02T15:42:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
RE: https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116000462944591897@aral Alphabet ran 230 billion profit in the period septebmer 2024-september 2025. So a 68 million fine scaled back to my yearly income (let's pretend all my income is profit) would mean a fine of about 15 dollars.It's meaningless. That's not a fine, that's a very low fee for being allowed to ignore the law. Until these fines are calculated as a percentage of the revenue ( not profit!), nothing will change.
(DIR) Post #B2uoqhMYZYNNlsugkq by troed@masto.sangberg.se
2026-02-02T15:49:59Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral It's a voluntary settlement, not a fine, and Google hasn't been found to do, or admitted to do, what has been claimed.https://www.lawcommentary.com/articles/google-agrees-to-68-million-settlement-over-claims-google-assistant-recorded-private-conversations
(DIR) Post #B2uvBKQpckyqST8KZc by AutisticInnovator@autistics.life
2026-02-02T17:00:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral Oh Google absolutely listens. I have a 2018 Google home max speaker, and back in 2021 I was having a phone conversation on speaker phone while sitting next to it. I said I wanted to monetize my autism blog by selling products to help autistic adults but I didn't know how to do that. The next morning my entire YouTube app feed was nothing but dropshipping and print on demand videos. That did result in me starting The Autistic Innovator though.Another time in 2021 I had a mental breakdown next to the speaker, and the next day my YouTube app was all encouraging videos related to what was in the speaker phone conversation. Gemini didn't exist back then, so I think it was an actual human at Google listening to me.
(DIR) Post #B2ux3wgPirNsgU1rdY by alberto_cottica@mastodon.green
2026-02-02T17:22:06Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral like others said, not a fine. But the general point stands.
(DIR) Post #B2v46sr372INMHLsFU by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2026-02-02T18:41:06Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@AutisticInnovator What’s even scarier is that even if they weren’t listening to what you said, they have enough of a realtime view of you from everything you do around the web and off (they also buy data from brokers and brick and mortar stores, etc.), they’d still know.While I wouldn’t put it past them to hire cheap labour in far off lands to do this (we have many examples of firms pulling similar Mechanical Turk moves), even without Gemini, they could’ve been using simple speech to text and heuristics.
(DIR) Post #B2v4CFuQp7rcJCUmFk by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2026-02-02T18:42:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@troed My apologies… so yes, it’s even worse. Not even a slap of the wrist.
(DIR) Post #B2v4V24cULdqtsDLjk by troed@masto.sangberg.se
2026-02-02T18:42:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral Why would there be a slap on the wrist when the allegations aren't proven to be true?
(DIR) Post #B2v4nT1H2h7FgURJi4 by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2026-02-02T18:45:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Salmon Thanks; added a correction.
(DIR) Post #B2v5228FIAEudbe8Rc by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2026-02-02T18:47:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@micdan It’s sarcasm. Thick, like molasses.
(DIR) Post #B2v5XNHehTGNDRzaMq by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2026-02-02T18:57:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@troed Senpai won’t notice you, you don’t have to try so hard.