Google 'improperly' accessed Kenyan rival Mocality's database

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Google 'improperly' accessed Kenyan rival Mocality's database topic for all Google fans here ..
Mocality - is a business database service in Kenya, Africa. Mocality.com - Find & be found: http://www.mocality.com/?sc


Google 'improperly' accessed Kenyan rival Mocality's database: by Guardian.co.uk: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/13/google-kenyan-rival-mocality-database?newsfeed=true

Quote:
'Google has confessed that a number of people working for it "improperly" accessed the customer database of a rival company in Kenya to boost its own business.

The US search giant said it was "mortified" to learn that staff illicitly entered the business directory of a Kenyan listings firm, called Mocality, in an attempt to sell a competing product to the rival's customers.'

- So Google employees they stolen the other's database .. I've heard about similar IObit affair - IObit has stolen the Malwarebytes MBAM database. Yeah .. You cross the Wild World here ..


Mocality blog here: Google, what were you thinking? by Stefan: http://blog.mocality.co.ke/2012/01/13/google-what-were-you-thinking/

Quote:
'Since October, Google’s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting to sell their competing product to our business owners. They have been telling untruths about their relationship with us, and about our business practices, in order to do so. As of January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted.

Furthermore, they now seem to have outsourced this operation from Kenya to India.

When we started this investigation, I thought that we’d catch a rogue call-centre employee, point out to Google that they were violating our Terms and conditions (sections 9.12 and 9.17, amongst others), someone would get a slap on the wrist, and life would continue.

I did not expect to find a human-powered, systematic, months-long, fraudulent (falsely claiming to be collaborating with us, and worse) attempt to undermine our business, being perpetrated from call centres on 2 continents.'


'Someone, somewhere, has some questions to answer.

These are my personal top 3:

•If Google wanted to work with our data, why didn’t they just ask?
In discussions with various Google Kenya/Africa folks in the past, I’d raised the idea of working together more closely in Kenya. Getting Kenyan businesses online is precisely what we do.
•Who authorised this? Until we uncovered the ‘India by way of Mountain View’ angle, I could have believed that this was a local team that somehow forgot the corporate motto, but not now.
•Who knew, and who SHOULD have known, even if they didn’t know?'
Stefan Magdalinski '


'Update (22:00 GMT 14-1-2011): Google has apologized.Google has apologized to Mocality, both online and more directly - I personally received a couple of calls from Joe Mucheru, their Sub-Saharan Africa Lead.

I appreciate the speed and honesty with which Google and Joe reacted to this, but there’s a number of points I want to highlight:

•My 3 questions above are key to understanding what happened, and I keenly await the outcome of Google’s internal investigations.
•The most serious issue is not the trawling of our database, it is the behaviour of the Google representatives on the calls.
•The real test is what action Google takes to remedy the damage done, the openness with which they explain how this went so wrong, and what steps they take to ensure this never happens again, in any country, to any startup.
•Apparently, the calls were made by a 3rd party vendor. I can see how this was the case for the activity we saw in Kenya, but the Indian activity seemed to come from Google’s own network. I know (from friends who are Googlers) how preciously that network is guarded. How was a 3rd party given access to it?
•And because people keep asking, no, we have not taken legal action (at this point).'
Stefan'

Comment by Anonymous, January 13, 2012 at 2:37 pm: 'Such actions are criminal in nature, and can get those who planned them (in the US) sent to JAIL.'

- So Google employees steals the other's database, and spreads the viruses by ads ..

Are there a moral code, ethic in all this? .. Morality?.. Or money only?

Another Snotty-nosed story.


EDIT: New link added, this one:
More mainstream media spin: on News.Linked.in: http://news.linked.in/3628/more-mainstream-media-spin/

Quote:
'If you do a search for “mocality” on google.com, then my first question to you is: Why do you do any search on google.com? The results are obviously biased towards returning positive results for Google’s partners, and negative results for those who are not yet tipsy-topsy from drinking mass quantities of google koolaid.'
'These are the so-called “top 10″ results — the news result at the top is an “additional bonus”. Note that the top news result says the problem is in Africa, not in Mountain View, California.'
'None of the results (besides the link to the mocality blog itself) state what is well-documented in the mocality blog: that Google representatives misrepresented (i.e. lied) about a relationship they maintained Google had with mocality.
So to get information about mocality, I suggest you do not waste your time with google. Why not go to the horse’s mouth?': http://www.mocality.com/


EDIT: Today, Jan 16, 2012, Google gets Mocality good results in the first places ..
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African Mocality News here.



Africa - Google relations are not good ..:


* Kenya - Nairobi Wire: Google Has Been Stealing Mocality's Data,Full Story With Recorded Phone Conversation.: http://nairobiwire.blogspot.com/2012/01/google-has-been-stealing-mocalitys.html

Quote:
'Mocality noted an anomaly on its server logs. 65,851 requests on its website came from a single IP address. About half of those requests accessed the contact details of the businesses. Any 10 year old will tell you this was large scale data harvesting.Data that had taken Mocality months and millions to put together, was been harvested just like that.' .. 'Mocality decided to set a trap. ..'

'Here is a call made by Google to Mocality.. Listen to it.'

* Nigeria - Tekedia.com: Shame To Google – Google Is Evil To Africa. Africa Union, Please Regulate Google.: http://tekedia.com/33910/shame-google-google-evil-africa-africa-union-regulate-google/

Quote:
'When people praised Google for saving companies $10 a year on web registration, we laughed. The reason is that the problem for African companies is not finding $10 to go online. Simply, Google wanted to have access to their data. They do this shamelessly. But the guys in Mocality are pretty smart and did a PhD level data analytics by documenting and archiving and then deliver a blow to this company we do not really like because of how they crush local companies. Instead of outsourcing jobs to local firms, Google wants to do all.

That is shameful especially now they are doing really unethical things. For those that use Google for ads, we are told Google always yanks them out for minor offenses. You make $400 and Google bans you. And there are many companies that never make the thresholds for payments, what happens? Google keeps the money. Now, who can stop this empire of evil, on Africa. Google needs to be regulated in Africa. Africa Union must do it work and get this company in order.'

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Yes, Google Evil, I've heard this somewhere .. and you? ..
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Mocality scandal: How far in the cookie jar was Google’s hand? : on memeburn.com: http://memeburn.com/2012/01/mocality-scandal-how-far-in-the-cookie-jar-was-googles-hand/

Quote:
'.. Google must take some responsibility, but it seems fairly obvious that this wasn’t something driven by anybody at head office, or even further down the chain. More than likely, some bright spark in the trenches decided that this was a good marketing strategy and ran with it without consulting management.'
'I believe that even though Mocality is not pursuing legal action against Google, it has a very strong case against Google, and somehow, a simple apology does not seem to be enough.'

And another very good read from memeburn.com also: Mocali-gate: Where is the broken link in Google? : http://memeburn.com/2012/01/mocali-gate-where-is-the-broken-link-in-google/

Quote:
'Where is the recourse? Has the employee been fired? Is this an isolated incident or is it just the tip of the iceberg?
There are a few unanswered questions which highlight some morally murky waters. Why was it so easy to move the operation to India? The transition appeared to be seamless with almost no break in communication to business owners as evident by server traffic. Is it that ingrained in the systems of Google? Which begs the question, how often does this sort of guerrilla telemarketing happen?'

'Despite all of this negativity, I have faith. Google has been a game changer in the internet world, so here’s hoping it sets the example and changes the business game. Don’t be evil Google, it doesn’t suit you.'

Edit: the links are OK. now, sorry!

And two new links for you:

* The Google-Kenya ripoff: By Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing.net: http://boingboing.net/2012/01/13/google-fraudulently-solicits-f.html - then read the comments, please ..

* Hitler is mortified by the fact that Google was caught stealing Mocality data: on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mNpzgbkWBQ&feature=youtu.be - 3:50 only.
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