Bonum Certa Men Certa

Alphabet/Gulag is Closing Down (Tightening the Screws in the Name of 'Security')

Video download link | md5sum 822522f8c3b98654d0c836a81cfa2817 Free Software Users and App-Minded Gulag Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Gulag (or Google) does not care about the Internet; it just wants to extend and control it, but it frames that as a matter of "security"

THE video above is about the company "Alphabet" (calling Gulag "Alphabet" is like calling Facebook "Meta", which is mostly a form of distraction from distasteful activities, just like GitHub pretends not to be Microsoft). Alphabet as a name came up and was advertised around the time many scandals had piled up. We're meant to be thinking YouTube, for example, has nothing to do with Gulag (even though the login is the same!) and this thing called Alphabet is looking over everything. Don't fall for it!

"We hope that one day the Web will be less than 10% of all Internet traffic and Gemini, which is bandwidth-conserving, will reach 1%.""Less secure apps" is what Gulag now calls traditional software, not so-called "apps" -- a misnomer that typically means proprietary software that spies heavily on the users. The page speaks of "your [sic] Google Account", which will change at the end of May. Why the change? They pretend to value security, but given how they treat users' privacy and given the back doors (there's some history there; see the video) only a gullible reader would fall for it.

Thankfully, some alternatives are emerging and rising fast. Gemini, for instance, needs only 2 more capsules (visible to Lupa) to reach 2,200. To quote: "There are 2198 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 1777 of them."

We hope that one day the Web will be less than 10% of all Internet traffic and Gemini, which is bandwidth-conserving, will reach 1%. If not Gemini, then something similar to it, which scales fine on residential connections and can thus be self-hosted from people's homes.

A few days ago a longtime GMail used [sic] told us that "Google [is] effectively pulling the plug on Thunderbird," but Mozilla says nothing about it. Thunderbird is how millions of people access GMail, so that's a pretty big deal and Mozilla ought to be concerned. I told this used [sic] that I "saw that [news] and do not expect even the so-called 'media' to cover it or for Gulag Noise (Google News) to pick up a story about it..." (for reasons explained in this previous video)

"GMail is not E-mail but an attack on E-mail as a protocol and an attack on the distributed/decentralised nature of E-mail."With a little effort one can find that about 7 years ago Madame Baker, not yet as CEO of Mozilla, wanted to kill Thunderbird, wrongly arguing that people were moving to "GMail" anyway (yes, she mentioned GMail specifically). At the time, she was already being paid a lot by Gulag (mostly the deal with placements for the address bar and search bar in Firefox). "Maybe she will move sideways over to Alphabet officially," the used [sic] said (he had already move away from GMail, albeit not completely). "Like de Icaza has been..."

"An additional point is that aside from helping them complete the coup," the used [sic] concluded, "she may have little to no value."

Mozilla has itself become a data collection company; being subsidised by Gulag and run by former Facebook managers won't help. We expect the war on E-mail to progress. GMail is not E-mail but an attack on E-mail as a protocol and an attack on the distributed/decentralised nature of E-mail. Microsoft too contributes towards this agenda and it's in Mozilla's Board.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Who Next After IBM? (Bubbles Don't Last Forever)
the demise of companies with "ai" in their name/domain
GNU/Linux Estimated at 8% "Market Share" Today (in statCounter)
Days ago it said 7.1%, then 7.3% or 7.4%
IBM Stock Collapses and It's Only the Beginning
Will GAFAM soon follow and will any executives be arrested for the accounting fraud insiders have long cautioned about?
 
Making Techrights Faster Down Under (Australia and New Zealand)
there's more to life than speed
Strikes at the EPO Approved for the Rest of the Year, "€1,3 Billion Taken From Staff Income"
Intensity can be revised and increased over time
Focusing on What We Really Ought to Focus on
Today we'll focus mostly on EPO affairs
Violence is Not a Joke
"Police say Widdecombe killing was targeted but motive remains unclear"
How to Properly Measure the Performance of a Patent Office
A "contribution from staff [which] is published by SUEPO Munich."
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XIV - "Not One of Us" (How the Group Dubbed by EPO Insiders "Alicante Mafia" Pushes Out Talent, Replacing It With Friends)
misuses the EPO's budget like it is a fountain of money for his friends
LibreTech Collective Abandons Microsoft GitHub and All Other Proprietary Software
Each time a project eliminates control by a hostile party it stands to gain
Links 15/07/2026: US Regime "Cuts Two Utah National Monuments by More Than 90%", "Hormuz is Less Crucial Than It Was"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2026: Old Computer Challenge, "Trial by Fire", LLM Slop Destroying Companies
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 14, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Heshan de Silva-Weeramuni Becomes Program Manager at the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
Heshan's addition means that the FSF is growing after a solid financial year (best in years)
Michael McMahon Explains Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks on the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
The real solution is a curb on botnets. A mitigation strategy, however, would involve going static.
Matters of Public Safety
"Police say Ann Widdecombe killed in 'targeted attack' as motive investigated"
The Register MS and Its Promotional Microsoft Content
It's not too hard to see what the business model of The Register MS is
IBM: From $306 to $212 in 7 Days, IBM Won't Go Up More Than 50% to Where It Was at 'Peak Vapourware'
There's a limit to how much or how long a company can fake its performance and its potential [...] Early this morning a few insiders ("traders") cashed in on their "pump-n-dump"
Red Hat Staff Needs to Start Looking for the Next Job
Workers can conveniently lie or deny it to themselves, but waves of PIPs ("silent layoffs") will sweep over more and more units or teams as the company runs out of money to play with
IBM the Next Bear Stearns
IBM cannot recover if all it has to show is vapourware
I'll Be Extremely Difficult for Microsoft to Sell Any XBox Consoles Now
Microsoft understands this
How Software Freedom Would Benefit Everybody
A society that denies control by greedy companies would do a disservice to monopolies and improve all services to citizens
Links 14/07/2026: Harsh But Also Fair Criticism of Hey Hi (AI) Slop, 'Open' AI Shuts Down Its Own Products as Funds Run Out
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/07/2026: Old CD Binder and AWK
Links for the day
In Defence of Physical Tickets
Tickets are not some "app" and not some "code" on some "screen"
Microsoft Layoffs Not Limited to XBox (False Narrative in the Mainstream Media)
Microsoft is becoming less relevant and workforce reductions won't end any time soon
Links 14/07/2026: Plagiarism Spun as "Training", Zelensky Announces Leadership Shuffle
Links for the day
The Register MS Has Just Published "AI" Webspam That Mentions "AI" 54 Times. It Was Paid to Do This.
Who pays for all this "AI" hype or "buzz"?
Gemini Links 14/07/2026: Self-Advocacy Online; "The Internet Is Dead: How the Web Lost Its Human Soul"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 13, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, July 13, 2026
Modern Technology Harms Women More Than Men (Because the 'Tech Bros' Who Dominate STEM Have a Poor View of Women)
“Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.”
Internet Relay Chat Trolls Are Not Expressing Opinions, They Are Saboteurs
For the record
Links 14/07/2026: "The Freedom of Information Act Is in Serious Trouble"; Irish Datacenters Use Up Almost 25% of Total Energy
Links for the day
The Register MS: "AI" Puff Pieces for Sale, Not Journalism at All, Just "Webspam"
The Register MS isn't the sole culprit
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 12, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, July 12, 2026
How We Do Techrights (and What's Changing Next Week)
Many former news sites no longer yield much non-meaningless news (not anymore); there's a gap to be filled