this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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I'm looking for 3rd parties who watch and report on developments in these large "world-shaping" corporations. Like a watchdog or a canary when they get into lawsuits or get caught doing bad things. Investigative reporting whether IRL or thorough internet documentarian style is ideal.

I've been thinking a lot about how google's algorithm changes have contributed to the web becoming the shit show it is now and what the alternatives could be. I do want to make sure I have a clear understanding of as much of the history as I can.

I tried searching "who watches google" and obviously just got advertised pages of Android Wear spy bracelets.

Is there a good old-fashioned directory page (or Community) for these anti-Web 2.0 resources?

Your help is appreciated!

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I suggest you subscribe to Cory Doctorow's and Ed Zitron's mailing lists, those are two people that regularly write about those people and what are they up to

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Ed's got a podcast called Better Offline as well.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I tried searching “who watches google” and obviously just got advertised pages of Android Wear spy bracelets.

have you tried this on platforms other than google?

Also, to answer the question... the cops/regulatory agencies (FTC, FCC, SEC, FBI/DOJ for examples. Sometimes congress hauls them before the senate or house of reps...)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Yes, I tried Duckduckgo, but also didn't get great results. Admittedly, I could have revised my terms a few more times, but I've had good luck with things Lemmy recommends, and this doesn't really seem like a niche interest on this site.

Thanks for the recommendation on all the 3 letter agencies. I bet there are mountains of CSPAN coverage out there for me to watch.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

https://themarkup.org/ maybe? At least that is what they claim to be doing.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I'm surprised I didn't think of the EFF despite donating to them before. Thank you for the links.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wouldn’t Mozilla have a conflict of interest?

[–] SolOrion 4 points 2 months ago

Yes, but that would just make them a biased source. Not an entirely useless one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

They mostly just provide a good summary of various companies privacy policies, for whatever that's worth 😅

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This looks really interesting. I try to get stories from varied sources, but don't particularly want it "curated" for me. I'm going to add this to my rotation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

They have a Mastodon account, which is why I know about them, you might want to follow that.

[–] Huckledebuck 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is what came up for "who watches Google"

"who keeps an eye on Google"

"who makes sure Google isn't doing bad things"

Still no answer.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You got closer than I did. I didn't mention it in the original post, but I also tried duckduckgo with little luck. I hope to god this is peak enshittification because I can imagine how it gets worse from here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I'm getting interesting results with this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=tech+industry+watchdog

I think naming a particular tech vendor is likely to get different results compared to using generic terms.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

sorry, i also didn't get anything close.

best i can do is bbb.

eff, as has been suggested, is also doing great things, but they're not specifically the watchdog.