Tuesday, November 23, 2021 (08:55)

Published content and internal discussions

Google notified me that they will update their Terms of Service on 5th of January. A quick dive into this document gives an idea of how much work it means to maintain such a legally relevant document.

And this is only the result of their discussions, i.e. what they decided to publish about the changes. Google does not publish the discussions themselves. I guess that their internal discussions about why they really update certain terms are considered confidential. The employees who participated in these discussions probably know very well that they would get fired if they would disclose parts of what has been discussed internally. Google is not a synodal corporation.

A synodal corporation should publish also their internal discussions about every published document. Only the real identity of non-representative workers may be kept secret in order to protect their privacy. An example of a non-representative worker is an independent expert or consultant.

The identity of representative workers of a synodal corporation (priests, pastors, teachers, managers) can’t be confidential. When you work as a representative for a synodal corporation, you must agree to give up big parts of your privacy. This is an argument for celibacy of these people.

Maintaining documentation (teachings) about a service or product is one level easier than maintaining such legally relevant texts (laws): you just say what has changed, without needing to convince any partner that you honestly just want their best.

Id cards under your skin

A Swedish start-up named Epicenter is injecting rice-grain sized microchips between the thumb and index finger of volunteers. The microchip is a kind of electronic id card that can’t get lost. It is being used in Sweden since 2017, about 500 volunteers are testing it. Now the start-up started a similar project in Finland, where they have already four volunteers so far.

2021-11-21 Soomes paigaldatakse vabatahtlikele mikrokiipe

2017-04-03 A Swedish start-up has started implanting microchips into its employees

I guess that I would volunteer. Remember that I have lost my purse in a bus already two times in less than half a year. The challenging thought is that it removes your freedom to go incognito. Which requires a lot of trust in your national government.

40 similar comments won’t be written

I just archived from my inbox 40 emails that would have needed at least a comment similar to the two examples above. Google provides me every day with five to ten news items that I really read and which really touch me. After reading such a news item on my mobile phone, I share it via email to myself. For each of these 40 mails I remembered why it was interesting and what I wanted to comment. But I just won’t do it because I have only 24 hours per day. Let them rest in peace.

After this cleanup of my inbox, I managed to wrote one (1) answer to a real email from another person, then worked 30 minutes outside to shovel the first snow of this winter, and then I received a next piece of news, which I can’t let uncommented: How Facebook and Google fund global misinformation.