@dangillmor 10 years ago google deleted my account the same way for no reason. I don't trust them anymore. Google must die

@dangillmor if we can discuss please let me know 💋

@dangillmor Oh well, history will no-doubt erase Google.

@dangillmor

Google actually _deleting_ data? _Someone_ must be criminally culpable for _something_.

@dangillmor I suspect this is just Google complying with EU law...

The new EU rules on "transparency and targeting of political advertising" kick in on 10th October. The rules require political ads to carry a transparency label and disclosure.

Since Google's Ads Transparency Center contains political ads without those disclosures, it's illegal under EU law to show those ads.

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/03/11/eu-introduces-new-rules-on-transparency-and-targeting-of-political-advertising/

@dangillmor aha. “When the service is (ostensibly) free, then You are the product.” And products can be changed, updated, or terminated. When you give it to the wind, with no strings, it is a glider and not a kite.

@dangillmor

When a corporation accepts investment money from #PrinceBonesaw ...

Murderous petrostate despots have ideas on controlling access to information.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-06/google-thiel-stand-out-in-saudi-prince-s-silicon-valley-tour

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/07/heres-a-look-at-who.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-peter-thiel-rupert-murdoch-met-with-bin-salman-2020-1

https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2025/accenture-and-google-cloud-advance-sovereign-cloud-and-generative-ai-adoption-in-saudi-arabia

Ditto for "cashless" systems... international state surveillance systems
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/inside-google-pays-saudi-arabia-launch-full-feature-breakdown-setup-guide-pros-and-cons-explained/articleshow/123942816.cms

https://www.electronicpaymentsinternational.com/news/saudi-arabia-digital-payments-google-ant/

The Moneyed & the rise of fossil fuel funded fascism
https://www.nextgov.com/artificial-intelligence/2025/05/us-and-saudi-arabia-announce-tech-investments-new-partnership/405285/

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/13/american-business-titans-trump-saudi-arabia-00346653

@dangillmor
OpenSecrets.org is authoritative on campaign finance, if not comprehensive on those other things. We are not supposed to depend on Google anyhow, with anything ever.

@dangillmor Above all, they delete the proofs of their influence and manipulations, as we live in times when Trump, Musk & Co pay money to fascists in Europe.
I wonder why nobody had scraped the data for external archives.

@dangillmor

Clearly trying to hide its involvement in elections.

@dangillmor thank goodness for the Internet Archive then.

@dangillmor One hopes the Wayback Machine comes in useful. I had do some digging there recently sussing out some club history <cough /> that occurred about 20 year ago.

@dangillmor So nobody thought it worth saving? Not one of the researchers relying on the dataset scraped it for future reference?