Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Google is worried an antitrust probe will reveal its secrets
We're all accustomed to everyday users, competitors, regulators, and even governments looking for assurances that their important data would be protected against Google's misuse – but how often does Google have to raise its voice, to make sure its sensitive information is protected out there in the world?
Well – the shoe seems to be well on the other foot here, in a probe conducted in Texas into allegations of the giant's antitrust behavior.
According to a report from the Hill, Google is very eager to make sure that third parties, i.e., consultants hired by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to help build the case, “won't leak any confidential information to Google's rivals.”
And who knows it better than Google how “sharing” sensitive data with third parties can negatively affect those the data belongs to – Google routinely does it to their billions of users. In fact, its dominance in the tech market in many segments in the US, and in the western world, is squarely built on that “sharing” business model.
But now that a multi-state probe filed in Texas is underway, Google, formally its parent Alphabet, have their feathers ruffled at the very thought.
Google has asked the judge to impose “an order limiting how much sensitive business information the two consultants can obtain and preventing them from working with Google competitors during or after the investigation,” the Hill writes.
The subtle assertion that Google, in its core businesses, actually has any competitors in the US market aside – the giant's petition cites what appear to be rivals rather than true competitors – America's News Corp and Microsoft, and Russia's Yandex – and consultants who previously worked on these company's cases against Google.
In the petition, Google says that two of the Attorney General's consultants “work for competitors and complainants.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @09:01AM (1 child)
Altstarchus is worried that he won't be probed. He sits, night after night, flashing lights at the sky, hoping the aliens will pick him for an anal probe. They ignore him, so Google is his only real hope.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @09:31AM
Meanwhile, Runaway is sleeping his idiotic slumber happy to know that he is anally probed [wikipedia.org] by no other than the father of JavaScript.
He learned about this great nation fathered by founders without a mother, so he deeply understood from the bottom of his... nein, only from his bottom, that his father was a patriot when fondling him. So poor Runaway is unapologetically happy now to call Brendan Eich [wikipedia.org] "daddy" and pay as many attention tokens as Brendan asks from him, because that's what the patriots do, keep the children of the nation happy. Or at least all white male children of all ages living in Arkansas. Because they deserve it.