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Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Internet (not my) problems
...So I write this blog on 'blogger.' A site purchased by Google in 2003. Now Google is not exactly a company without blood on its hands, despite the fluffy advertising, their 'fun' offices etc. Their biggest fault appears to be privacy - http://www.precursorblog.com/node/1647 Though as their revenue is routed through Ireland I guess I cannot complain: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/20/google-uk-tax-avoidance . Though as Google continues to gobble up companies like a hungry caterpillar eats junk food we are pretty much all using it if we go online - especially as it is still the best search engine out there, and has been since I remember first using it with a sense of joy in 1999. They are even planning on dominating the browser market with their ongoing massive promotion of Chrome and withdrawal of the advertising slot on Firefox. I started this as I wanted to point a finger at Amazon, like Google setting out to monopolise the online goods sector. It, like Paypal (more on this later) has its financial base in Luxemburg in order to avoid Tax - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/04/amazon-british-operation-corporation-tax, but like rich people who set up offshore accounts you can't really blame them for being so rich and powerful the can afford to do stuff like this - it is really up to us and our Governments to get together and make them pay their fair share, while showing our distaste for such attitudes by finding alternate retailers. However here is another problem Ebay, the monopoly auction site (which has a significant 'buy it now' online retail sector that is competition to Amazon marketplace), its international base in Switzerland, completes most of its transactions through Paypal, the monopoly online payment system/bank, which it bought in 2002, and has been based in, yes you guessed it Luxemburg, since 2007: http://www.newstatesman.com/business/technology/2012/10/ebay-accused-tax-avoidance.
Now I had my fingers burned as an Ebay seller a few years ago so I boycott both Paypal and Ebay, but given the monopoly on selling second hand goods that ebay has it is pretty frustrating. I sold some cherished toys to a buyer, neglecting to offer registered postal delivery - despite paying for insurance I sent the item, worth about £300 unregistered - two days after posting the buyer, realising my error and knowing a loophole raised a dispute, had his paypal payment reversed and claimed to not have received his goods, despite never contacting me to see when and how it was sent. I even had proof of postage which I believed was enough to protect me and make the buyer liable as they did not pay for recorded delivery - this was not the case so the buyer got his goods for free, and I had to get a my insurance claim from Royal Mail - essentially the UK taxpayer. Despite leveling a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman about this issue where I felt Ebay and Paypal were failing to close a buyer loophole this was all upheld, hence my ongoing boycott.
Amazon is and has become even more of an ever growing virus of business as the online retail sector grows, and it seems to be following the 'No Logo' rulebook of cheap labour: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/amazon-used-neonazi-guards-to-keep-immigrant-workforce-under-control-in-germany-8495843.html
Without Google, Ebay, Paypal and Amazon it is often difficult, more expensive or time consuming to find what you want on other websites or, if anyone still does this, from shops in the real world. Without Facebook we feel it would be impossible to know what is going on in our Friend specific world. However with Facebook floated on the stock market it is now increasingly clear that the company is looking for income streams, and it looks increasingly likely that popularity will be something that needs to be purchased, and that your network of friends will no longer see your posts due to fancy algorithms that decide how valuable your posts are to Facebook in terms of generating user input. An apparently free method of promoting events, sharing your music and communicating with people, friends and acquaintances has already become a business based on user input - that is people generating content that other people want to see or use - the same as Youtube (owned by Google), bandcamp, Last FM, Vimeo and among countless others all the blogging sites that exist.
The internet was a beautiful vision of pure freedom, of fair trade and commerce, of unrestricted information, crowd sourcing, user based content and collectives of like minded people.
Instead it is rapidly becoming the terrifying microcosmic mechanism of monopoly and control that it was feared it could become. Sites can track you, massive corporations can follow your purchase history, profile you, your identity can be easily stolen. It all makes entities like Anonymous and the Gay Nigger Association of America understandable. Despite all the progress and usefulness of the internet it often feels like life was somehow better before... And so I have decided to move my blog to a more independent blog community like Wordpress...
Now I had my fingers burned as an Ebay seller a few years ago so I boycott both Paypal and Ebay, but given the monopoly on selling second hand goods that ebay has it is pretty frustrating. I sold some cherished toys to a buyer, neglecting to offer registered postal delivery - despite paying for insurance I sent the item, worth about £300 unregistered - two days after posting the buyer, realising my error and knowing a loophole raised a dispute, had his paypal payment reversed and claimed to not have received his goods, despite never contacting me to see when and how it was sent. I even had proof of postage which I believed was enough to protect me and make the buyer liable as they did not pay for recorded delivery - this was not the case so the buyer got his goods for free, and I had to get a my insurance claim from Royal Mail - essentially the UK taxpayer. Despite leveling a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman about this issue where I felt Ebay and Paypal were failing to close a buyer loophole this was all upheld, hence my ongoing boycott.
Amazon is and has become even more of an ever growing virus of business as the online retail sector grows, and it seems to be following the 'No Logo' rulebook of cheap labour: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/amazon-used-neonazi-guards-to-keep-immigrant-workforce-under-control-in-germany-8495843.html
Without Google, Ebay, Paypal and Amazon it is often difficult, more expensive or time consuming to find what you want on other websites or, if anyone still does this, from shops in the real world. Without Facebook we feel it would be impossible to know what is going on in our Friend specific world. However with Facebook floated on the stock market it is now increasingly clear that the company is looking for income streams, and it looks increasingly likely that popularity will be something that needs to be purchased, and that your network of friends will no longer see your posts due to fancy algorithms that decide how valuable your posts are to Facebook in terms of generating user input. An apparently free method of promoting events, sharing your music and communicating with people, friends and acquaintances has already become a business based on user input - that is people generating content that other people want to see or use - the same as Youtube (owned by Google), bandcamp, Last FM, Vimeo and among countless others all the blogging sites that exist.
The internet was a beautiful vision of pure freedom, of fair trade and commerce, of unrestricted information, crowd sourcing, user based content and collectives of like minded people.
Instead it is rapidly becoming the terrifying microcosmic mechanism of monopoly and control that it was feared it could become. Sites can track you, massive corporations can follow your purchase history, profile you, your identity can be easily stolen. It all makes entities like Anonymous and the Gay Nigger Association of America understandable. Despite all the progress and usefulness of the internet it often feels like life was somehow better before... And so I have decided to move my blog to a more independent blog community like Wordpress...
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