BERLIN. A shocking SOS on Wednesday broke through the pages of Frankfurter Allgemeine, the director of the German publishing group Springer Mathieu Depfen. Deepfleet described in nightmarish colors the increasing power that the company is gathering Google to ordinary citizens, but even to large and profitable companies like theirs.
"We're afraid of Google," said Deputy, describing the Internet giant as a "mandatory partner". "We, and many others, are addicted to Google. The suggestion "if you do not like Google going elsewhere" looks like a recommendation to nuclear warriors to stop using electricity. "
Deppner admitted that his group, which publishes Bild and Die Welt newspapers among others, is in a "schizophrenic" state. On the one hand, it cooperates with Google in the internet sector advertisings and on the other hand he participates in a class action against the company, which he accuses of theft compgraphics rights.
In his lengthy letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Deppner accused the US giant of "selling protection". According to Deppner, Google highlights search results that promote its interests and forces companies that should appear at the top of the results to pay to appear. Deppner directly accuses the European Commission and Competition Commissioner Almunia of taking Google's side. "Is theme power. Is there a possibility of an autonomous European Internet infrastructure or not?", he asks.
Then he criticizes the Google Director's phrase "if there is something you do not want to know, do not do it". "Behind this concept lies the mentality of authoritarian regimes, not of free societies," notes Deputy. "Such phrases could be said by Stasi's director or some other secret service of a dictatorship. Only dictatorships want transparent citizens. "
Deputy notes that Google has "acquired all the treasure of human data". "How can competition work in the digital age if so much data is gathered in the hand of a single player?"
Even regulatory actions to restrict the use of cookies (programs installed on computers and track user habits) benefit Google, "as it has the leading edge in user-tracking technologies without the use of cookies".
Deppner's letter addresses issues concerning his group ("a simple change in Google's algorithm brings about a drop in traffic to by clicking here subsidiary company of our group, which is competitive with Google, by 70%. This is a real example"), but also issues of global interest. "Google's founder and largest shareholder, Larry Page, dreams of a place without privacy laws and without democratic control," writes Deppner, "and that's why he's in favor of the company owning giant office ships that will sail around the world.
