====== GAFAM ======

**Note:** this page is a //work in progress//.

//GAFAM// stands for Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. Another acronym often used is //FAANG// (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google). These several tech companies are well known for their sins, yet they still dominate and profit.

This page is meant to be an overview of what each of them did to make our lives worse and how we can liberate ourselves.

Companies mentioned in the acronyms above are of course by no means the only bad actors out there. There’s Twitter, Reddit and many others. They’re just not as huge as GAFAM.

See also: [[https://gafam.info/|GAFAM poster campaign]].

===== Corporate abuse =====

The key problem with these giant companies is that there are only a few of them, yet they control substantial part of the internet. If you doubt that could be true, read following articles by [[https://www.nytimes.com/by/kashmir-hill|Kashmir Hill]]:

  * [[https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-the-big-five-tech-giants-from-my-life-it-was-hel-1831304194|I Cut the ‘Big Five’ Tech Giants From My Life. It Was Hell]],
  * [[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/technology/blocking-the-tech-giants.html|I Tried to Live Without the Tech Giants. It Was Impossible]].

//Privacy International// (a British NGO), has created a [[https://privacyinternational.org/corporateabusetimeline|timeline of corporate abuse]], a relatively small collection of evidence that these companies are up to no good.

===== Google =====

Google started as one of several search engines. It grew over the years, finally becoming the giant it is now.

Further reading:

  * [[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/google-testing-its-controversial-new-ad-targeting-tech-millions-browsers-heres|Google Is Testing Its Controversial New Ad Targeting Tech in Millions of Browsers. Here’s What We Know]]
  * [[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/11/google-contributions-climate-change-deniers|Revealed: Google made large contributions to climate change deniers]]
  * [[https://nitter.nixnet.services/element_hq/status/1355290296947499013|Google have suspended Element in the Play Store without notifying us]]
  * [[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html|A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal]]
  * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)|Project Dragonfly]]
  * [[https://fuckoffgoogle.de/google-is-evil/|Google is Evil]]
  * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google|Criticism of Google]]

==== Alternatives ====

  * Install [[https://lineageos.org/|LineageOS]] on your Android phone and be free from "Google Apps" that you can never trust with your data.
  * Use different search engines, never get used to just one of them.
    * [[https://duckduckgo.com/|DuckDuckGo]],
    * [[https://qwant.com/|Qwant]],
    * [[https://searx.space/|SearXNG]].
  * Consider searching directly where you expect to find the information. For example, you wouldn't search for recipes in a movie database.
    * It makes sense to just go to your movie database of choice and search for the movie title, instead of asking Google to do the same for you.
    * Many websites offer their own search engines. Some of them even use [[https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSearch|OpenSearch]] to make it easier to add them to your browser! It's very comfortable and easy to use.
  * Register a mail account with a [[https://www.privacytools.io/privacy-email|privacy-respecting provider]].

===== Amazon =====

This large company is well known for:

  * treating its workers terribly:
    *  [[wp>Amazon worker organization]];
  * avoiding paying taxes
    * [[https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/15/tech/amazon-federal-income-tax/index.html|Despite record profits, Amazon didn’t pay any federal income tax in 2017 or 2018]],
    * [[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/02/new-study-deems-amazon-worst-for-aggressive-tax-avoidance|New study deems Amazon worst for 'aggressive' tax avoidance]];
  * shady practices, see [[reading:2023:w26#pluralistictiktok_s_enshittification_21_jan_2023|Cory Doctorow's essay about "Enshittification"]].

===== Facebook =====

[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica|Cambridge Analytica scandal]] was particularly well covered by the mainstream media. But it wasn’t the only one --- there’s even a page called [[https://dayssincelastfacebookscandal.com/|days since last Facebook scandal]] that records evidence of Facebook’s wrongdoings.

At the time of writing (2021-04-11), most recent Facebook scandal was data of 530 million Facebook users had been made publicly available. A company that encourages people to share this information should process it responsibly, right? Well, Facebook doesn’t think so. According to their [[https://about.fb.com/news/2021/04/facts-on-news-reports-about-facebook-data/|statement]], everything is fine because the data wasn’t stolen by hackers --- it was merely collected by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping|scraping]].

Blaming the users for not being aware that all their data was available, instead of providing reasonable defaults or //not collecting the data//, is just toxic corporate propaganda.

Further reading:
  * [[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/12/facebook-loophole-state-backed-manipulation|Revealed: the Facebook loophole that lets world leaders deceive and harass their citizens]]
  * [[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html|A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts From Myanmar’s Military]]
  * [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2020/09/30/will-facebook-sit-on-the-evidence-of-the-genocide-against-the-rohingyas/|Will Facebook Sit On The Evidence Of The Genocide Against The Rohingyas?]]

==== Alternatives ====

If you enjoy being in touch with your friends online or want to be up–to–date with interesting events nearby, there are always other tools you can try.

But first and foremost, don’t let //FOMO// (Fear of Missing Out) that Facebook, Twitter and others induced in all of us, harm your wellbeing. If you don’t know immediately about an interesting event — that doesn’t mean you’d never learn about it. Eventually you will and that’s the beauty of natural, human–centric social networks. And even if you don’t --- that’s OK too! When something important happens, somebody will let you know.

When all you want is staying in touch with friends, it’s quite simple:

  * **use email** --- everyone has it and you can exchange messages in smaller groups, which is the natural way for people to stay in touch. Email can be used from your phone or computer and is quite capable. You can also join mailing lists, which are groups of people interested in a common topic.
  * **join Fediverse** --- if email is not how you prefer communicating with your friends, you can consider creating an account on the federated social network called Fediverse. It is similar to email, because it’s built of a large number of servers, each server being like a community. Such communities can freely exchange messages and cooperate, so if a person has an account on server A and the other person has an account on server B, they can still be in touch and get notified whenever the other person publishes something interesting. Of course Fediverse is designed with privacy in mind, so you can always post things only for your friends or directly to selected persons. See more on [[https://fediverse.party/|fediverse.party]].
  * **use an open chat platform** --- like [[https://xmpp.org/|XMPP]] (used to be known as Jabber), [[https://element.io/|Element]] (used to be known as //Riot.im//) or even [[https://delta.chat/|Delta.Chat]] (a secure, email–based chat that you don’t have to create any accounts for).
  * **use RSS/Atom feeds** --- if you’re interested in receiving updates from a selected range of topics, you can subscribe to RSS or Atom feeds. Some websites still make them available and this is an incredibly useful source of information, as you get a list of most recent articles published by a website and decide for yourself if you’re interested.
  * **monitor interesting websites** --- sometimes, there won’t be an RSS feed or any other way to find out about interesting events happening nearby. But that doesn’t have to be a problem. Your friends or news portals may be writing about them, so you can open up local news websites and search for interesting stuff.

===== Apple =====

Company known to drive the lust for eye-candy gadgets sold at insane prices produces them in factory that needs "suicide nets", to prevent workers from jumping out of windows.

At the same time, the company prevents its devices from interoperating seamlessly with other devices, e.g. using non-standard cable sockets.

References:

  * [[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/18/foxconn-life-death-forbidden-city-longhua-suicide-apple-iphone-brian-merchant-one-device-extract|Life and death in Apple’s forbidden city]]
  * [[https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-factorys-wall-e-robots-and-suicide-nets-revealed/|Apple factory's Wall-E robots and suicide nets revealed]]
  * [[https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/19/23924549/jon-stewart-apple-ai-china-cancel|Jon Stewart’s Apple TV Plus show ends, reportedly over coverage of AI and China]]

==== Alternatives ====

Instead of buying another fancy gadget from this greedy corporation, consider:

  * Extending the lifetime of the devices you've already got. (For example, you can [[https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/degrowth/#see-what-corporations-are-really-doing-and-act-upon-it|downgrade your macOS]].)
  * Buying [[https://www.fairphone.com/|FairPhone]], a phone that's designed with sustainability in mind. (Many of the components it's built of can be replaced, so you can fix your device instead of buying a new one, leaving less waste.)

===== Microsoft =====

Microsoft has been long enough in the business to learn avoiding spotlights. But they've done their share. They've developed strategy known as [[wp>Embrace, extend, and extinguish]] (of course now followed by others).

References:

  - [[https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/13/microsoft_alleges_china_behind_espionagefocused/|Microsoft admits unauthorized access to Exchange Online, blames Chinese gang]]
  - [[https://www.techradar.com/pro/the-us-state-department-told-microsoft-that-emails-in-its-cloud-were-hacked-last-month|The US State Department told Microsoft that emails in its cloud were hacked last month]]
  - [[https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/21/microsoft_key_skeleton/|Stolen Microsoft key may have opened up a lot more than US govt email inboxes]]
  - [[wp>Criticism of Microsoft]]

==== Alternatives ====

  * **use free operating system** --- depending on your experience with computers, you can choose either **Linux** or something more advanced (like a flavour of BSD),
  * announce looking for a job on fediverse,
  * register a mail account with a [[https://www.privacytools.io/privacy-email|privacy-respecting provider]].