Google’s patents explicitly aimed to circumvent users’ decision rights over their data

Evidence

A clear aim of the patent is to assure its audience that Google scientists will not be deterred by users’ exercise of decision rights over their personal information, despite the fact that such rights were an inherent feature of the original social contract between the company and its users. Even when users do provide UPI, the inventors caution, “it may be intentionally or unintentionally inaccurate, it may become stale.… UPI for a user… can be determined (or updated or extended) even when no explicit information is given to the system.… An initial UPI may include some expressly entered UPI information, though it doesn’t need to.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 249

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the pervasive theme across this book that the original Google social contract (1960s/2000s privacy promises) was engineered around from the start. — connects to: Google’s refusal to allow opt-out reflects its extractive economics, not mere product choice — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 483; Google’s declarations form an interdependent edifice of claims to data — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 557; Google engineered its methods specifically to claim data users intentionally withheld — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 250 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Google engineered its methods specifically to claim data users intentionally withheld #corroborates (0.95) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 250
• Google declared a state of exception suspending users’ decision rights #corroborates (0.92) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 257
• Google’s secrecy was necessary to hide its unilateral seizure of user data #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 282
• Google institutionalized surveillance capitalism by simply declaring its right to take experience as data #corroborates (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1078
• Google’s leaders leveraged First Amendment claims as legal shelter for surveillance inventions #corroborates (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 349
• Privacy is fundamentally about decision rights over self-disclosure #qualifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 283