Google recently announced it would acquire Israeli-American cloud security firm Wiz for $32 billion. The price tag — 65 times Wiz’s annual revenue — has raised eyebrows and further solidified the close relationship between Google and the Israeli military.
Wiz was established only five years ago, and all four co-founders — Yinon Costica, Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik — were leaders in Israel’s elite military intelligence unit, Unit 8200. Like many Israeli tech companies, Wiz is a direct outgrowth of the military intelligence outfit. A recent study found that almost fifty of its current employees are Unit 8200 veterans.
Unit 8200 also spies on Americans. Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency regularly shared the data and communications of U.S. citizens with the Israeli intelligence group. “I think that’s amazing…It’s one of the biggest abuses we’ve seen,” he said.
For the Israeli government, the utility of these private spying firms filled with former IDF intelligence figures is that it allows it some measure of plausible deniability when confronted with spying attacks.
Google has invested heavily in Israel, first opening offices there in 2006. Longtime CEO Eric Schmidt is known to be a vocal supporter of the controversial state. In a 2012 meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he declared that “the decision to invest in Israel was one of the best that Google has ever made.”
Haha this was a great time for me to dump Google Photos for Jottacloud.
Your data will then be stored in Norway and it’s like 13$ for unlimited storage (with the caveat of bandwidth being throttled if you have more than 5TB).
But still, $13 for 5TB is a lot - and that jurisdiction? Hoo boy. My rights are safe, at least.
I don’t care if it sounds bad, Israel is a parasitic nation
Boycott Google.
Been doing it for years now. It’s a very easy thing to do.
Very hard thing to do…
Maps and youtube are not really replacable really but degoogling that phone, stop using their email, and messaging… That’s doable for anyone
Mega corps of course would always side with the genocide regimes
There are alternatives to Maps and ways to use YouTube that don’t benefit Google.
Don’t be a lazy ass, this is basically a war.
alternatives to Maps
not in my country. waze and gmaps are irreplaceable for now.
Organicmaps doesn’t provide traffic data which is critical
I ain’t buying new equipment to make ad free youtube work on teevee until next upgrade cycle
But sure on the devices, I use ad free free options.
Dont make perfect the enemy of good ;)
Denying Google root access is no 1 priority imho
Magic Earth has traffic data.
HereWeGo has traffic data and even has public transport and restaurant reviews (from TripAdvisor). It does collect some data but (1) at least it’s not Google and (2) it’s Dutch so they have to go by the GDPR.
Ty for heads up
.
Organicmaps is one single alternative.
Traffic data is critical for what?
Also there are more alternative to YouTube than that.
“Ad free free options” doesn’t mean anything, FOSS apps and decentralized services are the way.
And I don’t know what you are talking about with root access.
Traffic data is critical for what?
For navigating in any major urban area within the US
Also there are more alternative to YouTube than that.
None of them are prime time ready both content and app selection. I need to be ad free and I need to be watchable on TV.
And I don’t know what you are talking about with root access.
Any android phone that doesn’t have custom ROM installed on it is essentially Google with super user access to your device. Apple andw windows are the same.
That’d where privacy fight has to start for anyone serious about privacy. Replacing apps on phone where google has admin privileges is kinda futile IMHO
Anyone serious about privacy doesn’t use Google apps when the only reason to use them is laziness and being too used to Google’s environment and/or being victim of FOMO.
Sorry to break it down for you.
Also if your degoogled phone has Google Play Services installed you haven’t done much, so I hope at least you are using microG or something.
I don’t have either micro-g or gps. I don’t need maps either but it does not require GPS BTW
However, I advise friends on these issues and they also need uber/lyft. This is not a choice for most people. So they have sandboxed GPS for that reason.
You keep repeating laziness without understanding the situation and peopes needs, which are different from your own.
Have fun reading my decade of spam!
Hehe I also use Gmail only as my sign up box for all kinds ok of nonsense. It’s busting with junk mail.
The last time this was posted it didn’t have the link and was taken down.
This source has a seriously questionable objective to say the least.
I’m cool with critique of this acquisition, but I’d love to see it verified by a more reputable source.
Libs start reading the cited sources instead of asking the factuality police challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
In 2022, Robert Scheer reported that Google AdSense informed publishers, including MintPress News, that, “Due to the war in Ukraine, we will pause monetization of content that exploits, dismisses, or condones the war.” According to Scheer, these restrictions included “any pieces that question the NATO narrative on Ukraine into the content it describes”.
They questioned with the NATO narrative? How dare they! Next thing you know they are providing well-sourced information and debunking poorly sourced claims.
I am glad that your Wikipedia page quoting USAID funded media outlets is saying that Mintpress is a scam. This completely impartial news helped me wake up to my brainwashing of not blindly believing US state media.
Next time I read a MintPress article I will be sure to not check their sources to make up my own mind. But instead brand them unreliable because they question the NATO narrative. Thank you Lemmy.World user! I love the IDF and unit8200 they are awesome!
Ah yes, the cherry-pick and ad hominem.
The previous several paragraphs were more concerning.
For example:
MintPress News said it was a for-profit “regular news organization,” with an initial business plan where advertising revenues would exceed costs after three years.[12] MintPress’s anonymous investors were originally intended to fund MintPress operations until 2015.[2] The editor had investors, who Muhawesh claimed were “retired businesspeople”, but she would not name them, a situation MinnPost said was “unfortunate for a journalism operation fighting alongside people seeking transparency. The site’s ‘About Us’ page is similarly skinny.”[12]
The irony of your insinuating I don’t check my sources when my comment is about precisely that is both amusing and disheartening. Shouldn’t we all exercise this caution?
This seems like good reporting, and there is literally 0 coverage from this angle elsewhere that I could find.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been to Palestine and inevitably Israel. I have lobbied my congressional representatives to cease support for Israel. I voted “ceasefire” in the Democratic primary. But because I happen to think the source you chose is questionable and come from a different instance, I must support the apartheid regime.
And indeed I chose .world in the reddit API migration when .ml was actively encouraging sign ups on other instances, please forgive my terrible oversight.
I hope you have a better day.
Ah, of course your honor, the cherry picked example of a literal smoking gun you found in my hand
