[FOSDEM] Disenfranchised by Google

[J. R. Haigh]

Dear FOSDEM,
	I'm not sure where the best place to express this is but I understand that FOSDEM accepts sponsorship from Google, so I'm trying here. This year, Google has deliberately broken support for various Free Software applications that I use: Uzbl Web browser; Claws Mail; and NewPipe YouTube client for Android. They have also aggressively encouraged the Web developer community to make changes that break support for minimalist Web browsers – ‘mobile friendly’ websites have become very unfriendly to my browsing experience, with floating elements that obscure most of the screen and don't scroll out of the way.
	I know that Google do support a lot of good projects through their Summer Of Code and such, but I'm doubtful that this justifies the damage that they are causing to the Web and Free Software. I've got so fed-up of most Web pages looking like a pile of crap, I mean broken overlay elements and text scattered sparsely, that I've actually started exploring Gopherspace recently. Very nice and fast – none of this laggy broken mess that Google pushes!
	Since earlier this year, every time I launch Claws Mail, I get an authentication error on my Gmail account and my alternate email receives an automated email from Google about a “Critical security alert for your linked Google Account”, requiring review via a Web browser. However, when I login via my Web browser, I get a message saying that I need to use one of the Big Four: Chrome; Firefox; Safari; or IE. I used to use Firefox, but they dropped support for legacy addons (most of which I couldn't find sufficient replacements) and made changes to align with Google's agenda, which seems to be to disenfranchise people like me. After all, Mozilla also accepts a huge amount of sponsorship from Google, and I don't think that it's healthy for the interests of software freedom.
	I used to be able to watch YouTube using Uzbl-browser or NewPipe, and of course old versions of Firefox. Yes, Firefox is one of the Big Four too, but Google has that covered: they've dropped support for the old versions that I like. I have been using NewPipe to view PeerTube/Framasoft in the meantime whilst I wait for NewPipe to catch-up with Google's changes, but there's not a lot on there that interests me.
	Also, a few years ago, I noticed that most emails in my Spam folder in Gmail were legitimate and quite a lot of them, and that of these legitimate emails, there was a strong bias towards blocking emails that were more alternative – about sustainability, community, minimalism, or indeed Free Software. Those black-box algorithms are contrary to software freedom. Naturally I wanted to disable Gmail's spam filtering, or at least the 30-day automatic deletions, but there's no option to do either of those. This was my biggest driver for seeking an alternative email provider, eventually settling on one that I'm happy with (Runbox).
	However, it does still concern me that the freedoms of people who cannot switch to a paid email service for whatever reason are being eroded by Gmail. Maybe they can't afford it, would rather spend the money elsewhere, or maybe it's just too much hassle to switch their email address – that doesn't make it okay for Google to take advantage of them. I see from family members who currently still use Gmail that Google's black-box algorithms have thoroughly invaded the Inbox, with automatic sorting into Social, Promotion, and Important. Given that I was finding some important emails in my Spam folder, I don't trust Google's biases here at all.
	The general trend is that Google is having a big impact on disenfranchising the minimalist software that I wish to use, and in-turn has a big impact on disenfranchising me as an individual Free Software user. Actually not just as a user – I used to develop an Android application, but there were bugs and other obstacles in the API which I reported at Google Code. The detailed and well-formatted issue reports sat idle for years before eventually being automatically marked as “stale”, and eventually Google killed Code altogether. Later versions of the API actually broke other aspects of my application whilst fixing nothing. I never returned to Android development.
	Having been disenfranchised both as a Free Software developer and as a Free Software user, it is my view that what is most ‘stale’ here is Google's attitude to software freedom! I've not managed to find any way to complain to Google – their contact/support pages took me round in a circular loop. I was looking-forward to discussing these issues with them at FOSDEM, but it's not on this year, at least not in a way that allows the general public to talk to corporate giants at stalls. Hence why I'm sending this to the main FOSDEM mailing list. I urge FOSDEM to review its future sponsorship deals with Google, as I feel that with their current bad behaviour, endorsing Google unconditionally is contrary to the interests of software freedom.

With best intentions and regards,
James R. Haigh.
-- 
Wealth doesn't bring happiness, but poverty brings sadness.
https://wiki.FSFE.org/Fellows/JRHaigh
Sent from Debian with Claws Mail, using email subaddressing as an alternative to error-prone heuristical spam filtering.