Tech Sector: We Are All Scroogled

Eight large American technology firms have protested in a joint letter against the large-scale reading alongside of and eavesdropping on Internet service users. AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo urge the American President Obama to impose legal restrictions on eavesdropping by the government.

Scroogled

The ad campaign Microsoft started against Google this year was already toe-curling. It’s called Scroogled, because Google scans all your messages for tailored ads and supposedly shares user data too easily with app developers.

You cannot trust Google, but you can trust us, according to Microsoft. There are Scroogled T-shirts and Scroogled coffee mugs, and there is a large Scroogle billboard along the road to Google Headquarters. According to the polite interpretation, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge from “A Christmas Carol” symbolizes Google’s greed. The less polite interpretation is that you, um … are screwed when you use Google.

The toes were able to curl even more. Last week a “Scroogled” film was brought out that targets Google’s cheap laptop, the Chromebook. Main characters from the reality show “Pawn Stars” read from a rickety script that a Chromebook is worth nothing at the pawn shop. Indeed, Chrome applications only work with an Internet connection. No, you better buy a Real Laptop. One with Windows. Microsoft spends an estimated $1.5 billion on Windows 8 marketing, but that cheap “Pawn Stars” video probably does more harm than good. The software maker has a thing for anti-publicity — probably the hangover from years of Apple’s campaign against the personal computer. Tip for Microsoft: If you really want to embarrass Google, make people watch “The Internship.” This awkward comedy about the crazy life of the Google campus has been fittingly described by The Guardian as a “$60 million PR blowjob for Google” — and not even a good one.

Technology firms could put their marketing budgets to better use. Because of the negative publicity surrounding the wiretapping scandal, the American tech sector is threatened with losing between $22 and $35 billion in turnover in the coming years. Customers in Europe, Brazil and China wonder whether Internet companies are still able to be trusted, or are only a toy of the American security services.

Microsoft and Google signed a call from, among others, Apple, Facebook and Yahoo: Silicon Valley wants to provide openness on secret requests for customer data. More transparency should put users at ease, but so far those attempts have amounted to nothing. The espionage court forbids it. The transparency reports remain incomplete, as long as politicians want them to be.

The wiretapping scandal caused large web companies to suddenly improve their security methods. They have to, as last month The Washington Post revealed, based on the Snowden documents, that the National Security Agency taps traffic between the data centers of Google and Yahoo. Microsoft is also possibly a target.

What is worse: The NSA gaining access to cables or web companies who send badly encrypted data between their data centers? According to the leaked documents, only one hack was needed to gain access to all customer data.

Many providers believe that encryption is the responsibility of their customers, but that standpoint no longer holds true. Now Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook proudly announce that they will “step up” their encryption methods. The weapons’ race with the NSA’s code breakers begins, and more war rhetoric: With 2048-bit encryption, we can last until 2030.

It apparently takes a whistle-blower before web companies really work on their security. For years, spies have easily been able to read along with us. We are all scroogled.

P.S.: A nicer Microsoft campaign against Google’s read-along-mail: the Gmail man.