The Future of Civilization Is a Battle Between Google and Wikileaks

RT @wikileaks: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems:

The organizations, technologies, and people behind Google's autonomous vehicles

Au milieu des multinationales tentaculaires, quelques organisations non-lucratives continuent de lutter activement pour un Web ouvert et respectueux des internautes.

The notion that the world outside its homepage remains anonymous is increasingly untrue. Millions of internet users voluntarily give Facebook, Google, and others access to their movements across the web and on mobile when they use “social log in,” or the ability to sign in to a website using credentials from the big identity providers.

RT @m_cetera: @EricSchmidt calls 824 days of detainment in Ecuadorian Embassy "luxury lodgings"

[Google] wants people never to leave the internet at all. But then there are the self-driving cars and the drones; there’s Baseline Study, a project to collect blood, saliva and urine from hundreds of anonymous volunteers to try to predict the likelihood of heart attacks and other life-threatening conditions; and Calico, a biotech subsidiary that aims – in the words of Time magazine, anyway – to “solve death”. Are these all just the hobbies of astonishingly rich men who’d like to find a way not to die (and a good place for dinner)? Or is there a masterplan? What does Google want?

Meanwhile, former Twitter General Counsel Alex Macgillivray will be joining the White House as Deputy CTO, replacing Nicole Wong (who, as it hapens, was previously part of Legal at both Twitter and Google.)

« Megan has spent her career leading talented teams and taking cutting-edge technology and innovation initiatives from concept to design to deployment. I am confident that in her new role as America’s Chief Technology Officer, she will put her long record of leadership and exceptional skills to work on behalf of the American people. » -B. Obama

Google can collect real-time analytics on us, after all, but there’s almost no way to track how their decisions hold up or undermine their “don’t be evil” ethos. What’s trust without transparency?