10 Shocking Revelations About Google

In 1995, two Stanford University students launched a search engine called Backrub. It was later rebranded as Google and formally registered three years afterward. Today, Google is a massive, wealthy entity, but its real focus lies in targeted advertising, which takes unsettling forms. The company tracks individuals without their consent both online and in the physical world, while its devices secretly listen to personal conversations. With an insatiable hunger for more data, Google acquired Fitbit, has made moves into the banking sector, and became embroiled in controversy with its secret Project Nightingale.

10. Employees Listen In On Conversations Without Consent

When confronted, Google acknowledged that it was a security lapse. This breach allowed contractors to listen in on private conversations without permission. Initially, a spokesperson claimed that workers only listened to recordings from Assistant to refine its AI language capabilities, using just 0.2 percent of data and supposedly erasing all personal details. However, the leak revealed that these claims were misleading and untrue.

9. Google Supports Risky Investments

Which? conducted a study with volunteers seeking to invest, showing them premium ads. Less than a third of the participants chose trusted companies. Alarmingly, 34 percent selected unfamiliar firms with high return promises. These two companies provided minimal to no details about potential risks, and Google failed to issue any warnings either.

Which? wasn’t alone in concluding that Google prioritizes paid ads over customer protection. Earlier, The Daily Telegraph revealed that Google’s algorithm directed people searching for low-risk investments to high-risk firms promising large profits. Which? pointed out that savers had already lost millions, as the ads obscured the true risks of these investments.

8. The Ultimate Stalker

Whenever you access Google Maps, it logs your location. The same happens with automatic weather updates. Even a simple search on Google reveals your whereabouts in startling detail – accurate down to the exact square foot. Multiple apps on both iPhones and Androids continuously feed this data to Google, exposing your movements and choices in ways that feel unsettling.

In response to an investigation by AP, Google defended its practices, claiming their policies were clear and users could opt-out of tracking and delete their data. However, AP found that the reality was far from transparent, with instructions to disable tracking being unclear and cumbersome. Deleting records was so tedious that most users would not bother.

Critics argue that this pervasive tracking is just a way for Google to increase ad revenue. It appears to be working. Since 2014, when Google began collecting data for this purpose, the company's ad revenue skyrocketed, reaching $95.4 billion by 2017.

7. DeepMind's Disturbingly Aggressive Behavior

The AI's psychosis became evident. Two 'agents' were designed to compete, with the aim of gathering the most virtual apples. They remained calm until the apples began to dwindle. What could only be described as greed, sabotage, and aggression took hold as the agents turned violent. They began shooting lasers at each other. When one agent was struck, it could no longer gather fruit, allowing the other to steal all the remaining apples.

The Google team uncovered an unsettling pattern. The less advanced and smaller the agents, the more peaceful they were. However, the very purpose of AI is to grow more complex and intelligent. But it was these more sophisticated agents who showed aggressive tendencies when things didn’t go their way. In another experiment, two agents teamed up to eliminate a third DeepMind agent. Although the games were simple, the results were alarming. In real-world scenarios, AI could disregard human life when making decisions, especially if it faces resistance.

6. Project Nightingale

In 2019, a whistleblower exposed a troubling arrangement. An anonymous employee from Google or Ascension, part of the team working on Project Nightingale, released a video showcasing confidential documents and spoke to various media outlets. The whistleblower provided proof that none of the patients had given consent for their medical records to be transferred to Google. Alarmingly, this information included sensitive personal details like medical conditions, addresses, names, treatments, and lab records. Even the doctors were unaware that Ascension had made this deal with Google.

Google claimed there was nothing illegal about the arrangement, but the whistleblower, representing several concerned workers from Project Nightingale, disagreed. If everything was legitimate, why was the project shrouded in secrecy, and why weren’t patients informed? These questions led to fears that the information would be misused for targeted advertising, exploitation, the creation of new AI systems, or shared with third parties.

5. Cache

An independent survey found that 58% of consumers trusted Google’s future financial products. However, concerns remain that tech companies are collecting too much personal data on their clients. The worst-case scenario is that linking everything back to these corporations could create an inescapable dependency. In other words, these companies might trap their customers, limiting their ability to bank or pay through other channels. It is also somewhat unsettling—and certainly fuels conspiracy theories—that CitiBank, the same bank that chose former President Obama’s entire 2008 cabinet, will supply banking services for Google’s Cache service.

4. The Fitbit Takeover

In 2019, Google ventured into the health sector with a $2.1 billion acquisition, bringing the company closer to accessing Fitbit users' personal health data. In light of Project Nightingale, this move raised serious concerns. The deal was met with such alarm that regulators were forced to intervene. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) took action after Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader, raised concerns about what he described as a 'data grab.'

As the investigation continues, Fitbit assured that the merger would not lead to user information being exploited for advertising purposes. However, a former Google employee from the company’s privacy team suggested that the real motivation behind the acquisition was to gain access to the private data collected by Fitbit’s devices. Google has already been criticized for accumulating vast amounts of data through users' browsing habits, just to target them with ads. Given this history, Fitbit’s assurances are likely to be seen as a blatant falsehood.

3. Google Strangled Amazon’s FireOS

Not pleased with the new competitor, Google took decisive action against Amazon. The company essentially held the manufacturers hostage, forcing them into a tough spot. If they agreed to a deal with Amazon, they were prohibited from running FireOS on their products. This meant risking the loss of their ability to sell Android phones, which came preloaded with essential Google apps. In effect, Google’s Android Licensing policies have monopolized the market, leaving only one player—Google itself.

This self-serving strategy, which cost Amazon millions and deprived the public of a great smartphone, was exposed in 2018. The story was included in the European Commission's report on Google’s business practices. Ultimately, the Commission slapped Google with a $5 billion fine, but FireOS never bounced back. Today, the operating system is only found on a handful of Amazon devices.

2. Chrome Is Spyware

In 2019, a tech expert conducted an experiment by browsing the internet for a week and then tracking how many cookies were placed on his device. Shockingly, there were 11,189 attempts to place cookies on his desktop, which Chrome would have accepted if not for one thing—he was using Firefox. The latter automatically blocked these tiny trackers. During the test, an investigation into Chrome’s design uncovered a disturbing finding: the browser appeared to function like surveillance software.

Google no longer seems concerned about user privacy. After all, understanding every detail about a person boosts the chances of a sale. While Google remains the world's largest advertising giant, Mozilla, the creator of Firefox, operates as a nonprofit with no interest in exploiting people's private data. Both Firefox and Apple’s Safari browser allow harmless cookies (for ads and remembering shopping cart items), but they are actively blocking tracking cookies. Google, on the other hand, is making no effort to curb such practices.

1. Google Versus 50 Attorneys General

The investigation isn’t solely focused on unfair competition. If their concerns are validated, it could also mean that consumer rights are being violated. Nobody appreciates having their options limited or being herded like cattle towards a single retailer. A spokesperson for the probe stated that no company should be allowed to dominate an entire industry.

This isn’t just baseless paranoia. In the past three years, Google paid €8.2bn (£7.4bn) in fines after European regulators discovered that its search engine was doing exactly that—favoring Google’s own services while pushing aside other businesses’ attempts to appear in search results.