Just making a note that the Google weather app took a huge leap towards further enshittification recently.

Instead of showing a convenient view of the weather for the next 10 days and the day's precipitation, it now shows a bunch of shitty Google links. Much less useful.

#GoogleSucks #enshittification #weather #GoogleWeather

In August, 2025, Google announced they're locking down Android in September, 2026. A friend told me about it in November, but I wasn't able to find anything to confirm it until recently.

I'm guessing this is old news to devs, but maybe not to other consumers. If you're a consumer who chose Android because it was an open system, and want that to continue, these folks describe ways you can help.

ETA: They describe ways devs can help, too.

https://keepandroidopen.org

#Android #FOSS #GoogleSucks

Unified Attestation is a free, open-source alternative to Google Play Integrity. It delivers short-lived integrity tokens signed by a single backend, verified offline by app servers, & issued via a privileged Android system service. It can live alongside Play Integrity, & it’s simple to integrate for app developers on both the app and server sides.

An initiative by Volla Systeme GmbH.

https://uattest.net/ && https://github.com/unifiedAttestation

#googlesucks #googleisass #longliveopensource #ossforever

My storage is practically full on Google. Those bastards are trying to get me to pay for more storage. So I'm going on a deletion binge.

The problem is a lot of my older mail is from dead friends. I don't want to give it up. So I'm deleting what I can, and also deleting some photos and videos. I've been backing a lot of the media stuff on various SSDs anyway.

But damn it, Google originally promised unlimited storage!

#Google #GoogleSucks #Enshittification

So I sent a bug report to Unity about it not picking up file changes properly; got a reply that I need to include my project files in the report, and if I would like to please send that to some Google drive.

Yeah, nah I'm cool thanks. 😬

Luckily, someone on the Unity forums came up with a DIY workaround script!

#UnitySucks #GoogleSucks

Don't like it when the shoe is on the other foot, Google?

#archlabs #googlesucks

So YourTrash also known as YouTube now offers creators of Videos to answer with AI answers...
How long until YT decides to answer for me without me even knowing?

Whoever is responsible for this shit may someone stuff cornflakes down your throat as dry as possible, like you stuff unnecessary trash down our throats. I'm glad I'm not uploading anything anymore...

#AI #AISlop #KI #KISlop #YouTube #Google #GoogleSucks #GoogleIstScheiße #CyberpunkIsNow #TechBros

HT @bob

#DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old #USCitizen Who Criticized Them in Email

The Department of Homeland Security is using a little-known tool to go after its critics.

Hafiz Rashid/ February 3, 2026

"The #Trump administration is targeting #FreeSpeech with a little-known legal tool: #AdministrativeSubpoenas.

"The #WashingtonPost reports that a retired #Philadelphia man, Jon, 67, found himself in the government’s crosshairs after he emailed a lead prosecutor at the Department of Homeland Security, #JosephDernbach, who was handling the deportation case of an #AfghanRefugee, identified as H, asking him to consider that the man’s life was in danger from the #Taliban.

" 'Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,' Jon wrote from his #GMail account. 'Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.'

"Later that day, Jon received an email from #Google notifying him that an administrative subpoena had been sent to them from the Department of Homeland Security 'compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.' Federal agencies can issue such subpoenas without an order from a judge or grand jury, and Google gave Jon, who withheld his last name to protect his family from the government, one week to challenge it.

"Laws are supposed to restrict the use of administrative subpoenas, but DHS has used the tool against dissent protected under the #FirstAmendment to the #Constitution. Jon could not find who in the agency issued the #subpoena, let alone a record of it to show an attorney.

"Days later, DHS agents showed up at Jon’s door. A naturalized U.S. citizen originally from the #UK, Jon was worried about potential violence. The agents showed him a copy of the email and asked to see his side of the story. They didn’t know about the administrative subpoena but said they received orders to interview Jon by #DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"Eventually, the agents agreed that Jon had committed no crimes after he told them he found Dernbach’s email address through a simple Google search. Jon secured pro bono representation by #ACLU attorneys, who argue that the government is violating a statute that limits how administrative subpoenas can be used for '#ImmigrationEnforcement' and that the government targeted Jon for #ProtectedSpeech.

" 'It doesn’t take that much to make people look over their shoulder, to think twice before they speak again,' said Nathan Freed Wessler, one of Jon’s attorneys. 'That’s why these kinds of subpoenas and other actions—the visits—are so pernicious. You don’t have to lock somebody up to make them reticent to make their voice heard. It really doesn’t take much, because the power of the federal government is so overwhelming.'

"Both #Google and #Meta received a record number of subpoenas in the United States during the first half of 2025 as Trump’s second term began, with Google receiving 28,622, a 15 percent increase over the previous six months. Jon was fortunate to have his case picked up by the ACLU and later reported on by a national media outlet. How many others in the U.S. haven’t been so lucky and face legal challenges for exercising their right to free speech?"

Source / listen:
https://newrepublic.com/post/206088/homeland-security-67-year-old-us-citizen-criticized-email

#USPol #GoogleSucks #BigTech #Fascism #DefundDHS #ThoughtPolice #Orwellian #NineteenEightyFour #Authoritarianism #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity

AI failure: I asked Google to find me a piece by Frederick Pohl, the science fiction author, about counting in binary. Google's AI promptly informed me that no such piece existed. Maybe I was thinking of some in joke made by science fiction authors about binary numbers, it suggested.

But damn it, even though I read that article about 30 years ago I KNEW it was by Frederick Pohl. So I did some more searching and found it: "How To Count In Binary On Your Fingers" by, sure enough, Frederick Pohl!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a copy online that was free to read, but I have a copy of my own.

#AI #AIfailures #GoogleSucks