Saturday, January 15, 2022

GOOGLE - ANOTHER HIGH TECH BILLIONAIRE'S CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE - Lawsuit: Google Rigged Ads Marketplace Auctions to Inflate Its Own Bids

FUCK JOE BIDEN'S BILLIONAIRE CLASS! WITH AN IRON POLE!


HOW MANY CLASS ACTION CASES HAVE BEEN BROUGHT AGAINST GOOGLE FOR CHEATING CONSUMERS AND BLOG POSTERS???


Lawsuit: Google Rigged Ads Marketplace Auctions to Inflate Its Own Bids

Google CEO Sundar Pichai before Congress
Alex Wong/ Getty
2:11

Google rigged auctions for ads on its marketplace to ensure that buyers favored by the company won bids at inflated prices, resulting in more profits for the company, according to findings from a multi-state antitrust lawsuit led by Texas AG Ken Paxton.

According to the lawsuit, Google’s goal was to reverse the trends of regular third parties winning advertising auctions, which the Masters of the Universe considered as hurting its interests. The Silicon Valley giant set out to make sure it wouldn’t happen on a regular basis.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court on November 01, 2021 in Washington, DC. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a challenge to the controversial Texas abortion law which bans abortions after 6 weeks. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court on November 01, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Sundar Pichai CEO of Google ( Carsten Koall /Getty)

Via the Daily Mail:

 

To accomplish this the gTrade team developed a number of secret auction manipulation schemes, the most notable of which was codenamed ‘Project Bernanke’.

The project is said to have aimed to manipulate auctions to put money into a ‘Bernanke pool’ to be later spent inflating Google’s bids to ensure they won over non-Google buyers.

Google allegedly developed three different versions of Project Bernanke – one known as ‘Bell’, a second as ‘Global Bernanke’ and a third with an unknown name.

Google is alleged to have made $228 million a year by manipulating the exchange to artificially lower the clearing prices for third-party publishers’ advertising inventories.

Google also allegedly used the scheme to favor publishers that grave preferential access to AdX, its ad exchange network. The report claims that USA Today was the recipient of such favoritism.

Via the Daily Mail:

It appears the Bernanke project would then drop the NYT’s and WSJ’s revenues from AdX by up to 40 per cent, then use those siphoned revenues to inflate the bids of advertisers using Google Ads to bid on USA Today’s ad inventory.

Publishers have reacted with outrage to the findings, denouncing the scheme as “utterly dishonest” and a “staggering breach of trust” according to the Daily Mail.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. 

Microsoft Hires Lawyers to Review Sexual Harassment Policies After Allegations Against Bill Gates

Bill Gates hands up
Michael Cohen/Getty Images
2:46

Microsoft has reportedly hired a team of external lawyers to review the company’s sexual harassment policies, including the handling of allegations against company founder Bill Gates.

Business Insider reports that Microsoft’s board announced this week that it has hired an external law firm to look into the company’s handling of allegations of sexual harassment. The board has reportedly hired the law firm Arent Fox to conduct a full review of its sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies.

Microsoft founder-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates delivers a speech during the Global Investment Summit at the Science Museum in London on October 19, 2021. (Photo by Leon Neal / POOL / AFP) (Photo by LEON NEAL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

 (Photo by LEON NEAL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (AFP)

Arent Fox will reportedly be summarizing any sexual harassment investigations brought against members of Microsoft’s board of directors and its senior leadership tea, including allegations brought against Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

In May 2021, it was reported that members of the Microsoft board opened an investigation into Gates in 2019 following allegations from an employee who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Gates.

In a statement at the time, Microsoft said:

Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000.

A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern.

In 2020, Gates stepped down from his position on Microsoft’s board before the investigation concluded. A spokesperson for Gates said that his decision to step down from the board was “in no way related to this matter.”

The board stated that Arent Fox’s investigation will “assess the steps that have been taken to hold employees, including executives, accountable for sexual harassment or gender discrimination.”

A shareholder proposal passed at Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting in November demanded an “independent and transparent” investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at the company.

The proposal stated: “Reports of Bill Gates’ inappropriate relationships and sexual advances towards Microsoft employees have only exacerbated concerns, putting in question the culture set by top leadership, and the board’s role holding those culpable accountable.”

The review will end in a transparency report which is set to be provided to employees, shareholders, and the public in Spring this year.

Read more at Business Insider here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com


Facebook Facing $3.2 Billion Class Action Lawsuit over Treatment of UK Users

Mark Zuckerberg deep in thought (Drew Angerer /Getty)
Drew Angerer /Getty
2:50

Facebook (now called Meta) is facing a $3.2 billion lawsuit over the alleged exploitation of its UK users. One expert involved in the lawsuit said: “They are exploiting users by taking their personal data without properly compensating them for taking that data. I don’t think the users are entirely clear when they click on the terms and conditions how unfair that deal is.”

Engadget reports that Facebook (now Meta) is facing a major court case as a legal expert has begun work with a litigation firm to sue the company on behalf of 44 million Facebook users in the United Kingdom. The class-action lawsuit alleges that UK users had their data exploited in violation of competition laws.

FILE: In this file photo the Facebook Inc. logo is reflected in the eyeglasses of a user in this arranged photo in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A Facebook IPO would provide funds to help the social-networking service maintain its expansion and fend off competition from Internet rivals such as Google Inc. and Twitter Inc. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 10: Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Zuckerberg, 33, was called to testify after it was reported that 87 million Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The lawsuit is seeking £2.3 billion ($3.2 billion) in damages for UK Facebook users. The suit was filed by Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen who specialized in competition law. The law firm Innsworth which takes on cases in exchange for a share of damages won is funding the case.

The lawsuit alleges that although users do not pay to use Facebook, the information that they provide the social media platform with is valuable. Lovdahl Gormsen said in a statement: “They are exploiting users by taking their personal data without properly compensating them for taking that data. I don’t think the users are entirely clear when they click on the terms and conditions how unfair that deal is.”

Gormsen added that Facebook has become “the sole social network in the UK where you could be sure to connect with friends and family in one place.” The lawsuit further notes that Facebook extensively tracks its user across the entire internet, via the Facebook Pixel which Breitbart News has previously reported on.

“It abused its market dominance to impose unfair terms and conditions on ordinary Britons giving it the power to exploit their personal data,” Lovdahl Gormsen stated.

The lawsuit is covering a period from October 2015 to December 31, 2019. The lawsuit is an “opt-out” class action lawsuit meaning that users will not need to provide any form of consent in order to receive damage from the case, unless they choose to opt-out.

A spokesperson for Facebook told the Guardian: “People access our service for free. They choose our services because we deliver value for them and they have meaningful control of what information they share on Meta’s platforms and who with. We have invested heavily to create tools that allow them to do so.”

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

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