Edward Snowden, former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency, has said it is a fact that Google Search is "totally unusable" in a post on Twitter. Snowden is not a fan of Google's privacy efforts and ad network.
Edward Snowden went to Twitter to say that "search results become absolute garbage for basically every site? It's nearly impossible to discover useful information these days (outside the ArchWiki)." I then kind of wanted to see if this statement was directed at Google and Snowden said not only Google but yes.
Snowden said he "definitely meant search engines (among others)," adding that "Google is the worst by far, even without poor results." Why is it the worst? He said:
- inaccessible to anyone who cares about their privacy (improper Tor blocking)
- hostile, scripts-required captchas
- page redirect for mandatory, scripts-required cookie
He then laid out four things Google can do to improve things for users: They include: A) All scripts disabled, hardened browser. (B) Via Tor (and after, via highly-shared VPNs). (C) Not logged in and (D) Definitely not using Chrome.
Snowden then ended his Twitter thread on Google saying "the fact that Google is totally unusable is no skin off my back, because I can work around it."
Here are those tweets:
I got the impression he’s talking about site search. That’s what he named, not Google.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 16, 2021
I seriously encourage anyone who has anything to do with google search to try to *any* google stuff in a privacy preserving manner:
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 16, 2021
A) All scripts disabled, hardened browser.
B) Via Tor (and after, via highly-shared VPNs).
C) Not logged in.
D) Definitely not using Chrome.
The fact that Google is totally unusable is no skin off my back, because I can work around it, but whoever decided every Google property should be gated by a redirect to a scripts-required cookie-gate has made the internet less safe.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 16, 2021
No law or bot problem justifies this.
Danny Sullivan of Google did respond asking for examples:
That's not something a person like me can do, but I encourage you to read the replies to the tweet, which unanimously agree with the sentiment.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 16, 2021
I thanked Mr. Snowden for responding:
Happy to help. Cheers.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 16, 2021
I am sure many of you agree with this sentiment. Oh, if you do not know who Edward Snowden is for some reason, read his Wikipedia entry.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
