Category Archives: Google

When Frances Haugen revealed she was the Facebook whistleblower who supplied internal documents to Congress and the Wall Street Journal, she joined a growing list of current and former Silicon Valley employees whove come forward to call out military contracts, racism, sexism, contributions to climate crisis, pay disparities and more in the industry.

In the past days, the Guardian spoke with five former employees of Amazon, Google, and Pinterest whove spoken out about their companies policies. The conversations revealed Haugens experience has been singular in some respects. Few of them received the international praise bestowed upon her. Some of them said they have faced termination, retaliation, harassment and prolonged litigation.

But Haugen is entering a community of whistleblowers that appears tighter than ever, with some working to make it easier for the employees to come forward, through legislation, solidarity funds, and resources.

Welcome to the party, Frances Haugen, one tweeted.

Chelsey Glasson left Google in August 2019, alleging pregnancy discrimination and retaliation. She filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company the following year, and her trial is scheduled for 10 January. Years of litigation against a multibillion dollar company have been like a part-time job, according to the mom of two.

After leaving Google, Glasson landed at Facebook. A few months into the new job, she was notified by Facebooks legal department that Google had subpoenaed her employee records, including payroll information, performance evaluations, any complaints she lodged while she was there, and any and all communications referencing Google.

In the time since then, Glasson said, she has had to give Googles legal team access to the most private corners of her life. Shes been through multiple rounds of discovery, depositions, and psychiatric analysis. Since Glasson is filing for emotional damages, Google has asked for her medical records including her notes from therapy sessions in which she has discussed her marriage and other personal issues.

People dont understand when you file a lawsuit as a plaintiff, it really is your whole life that becomes on display, she said. There are very few limits to what a corporation like Google can ask in discovery. Its very, very intrusive.

In the past year, Glasson, who left Facebook to join real-estate startup Compass, has lent her expertise and experience to Washington state senator Karen Keiser to help push through a bill that would extend the time someone could file a pregnancy discrimination claim from six months to a year after experiencing it.

I really want what I went through to have a purpose and to drive meaningful for others, she said.

Between the lawsuit, the bill and her advocacy work, Glasson said shes had little time to process the experiences of the past years. But its been clear from the get-go that in order for me to heal, I needed to know that I did everything that I could to fight this, and that my fight and my story needed to drive change and be used to hopefully help others, she said.

If I lose that makes me really scared because I think it sends such a strong signal to Google and other tech companies that fighting hard and aggressively and trying to exhaust plaintiffs like me is the path to go, she added.

Google declined to comment for this story.

Timnit Gebru wouldnt encourage anyone to be a whistleblower right now. Not with the few protections theyre afforded.

Gebru, a respected leader in AI ethics research, was ousted from Google after she refused to retract a research paper she co-authored about the downfalls of a type of AI software that powers the companys search engine.

For months after, she dealt with an onslaught of insults and harassment brimming with misogynoir, hatred aimed at Black women, she said.

She became the target of an online harassment campaign by a slew of anonymous accounts. Academics with large followings but no real ties to her or Google disparaged her and her work, saying she was creating a toxic environment and that her supporters were simply deranged activists. Googles head of research Jeff Dean called her paper subpar.

Being a Black woman, it was very different, Gebru said. Theres a specific strand of vitriol you deal with.

Gebru said she was exhausted and didnt eat or sleep much for months. After learning what happened to Glasson, she decided against seeking therapy in the months after she said she was fired. (Google maintains Gebru resigned from her position.)

I was afraid of [being subpoenaed], what were they going to try to say or use, she said. I dont want them to know anything.

But, she acknowledges shes one of the lucky ones. More than a thousand former colleagues and academics wrote an open letter demanding the company explain its actions. Gebru was also offered funding from foundations for her next endeavor.

Peoples reputations and careers are basically destroyed if they whistleblow like this, she said. Even if theyre not, then a lot of people cant spend all day fighting the companies because they have to figure out how to feed their families and get healthcare. I could take the time to recover a little bit, or try to recover, and deal with what was going on.

Since she first spoke up, there have been important moves toward creating more protections for whistleblowers, Gebru said. But much of it has been shouldered by whistleblowers themselves. Ifeoma Ozoma, a former Pinterest employee whotogether with Aerica Shimizu Banks, raised pay discrimination issues, helped launch a tech worker handbook. Ozoma and Banks also helped craft the Silenced No More Act, a bill that bars companies from imposing non-disclosure agreements when it comes to workplace or discrimination complaints. Gebru also cited the work Glasson has done in Washington.

Why do [we] have to be the one to take on the burden? Gebru asked.

Despite such recent wins for tech whistleblowers, Gebru maintains the payoff isnt worth the personal cost whistleblowers face. The best case scenario for [employees Google has fired] is theyre reinstated, she said. So why would Google just not do this over and over again? Youre actually telling them that this is the best case strategy for them because they tire you out. They can hide, they have piles of money to hire lawyers.

After speaking out publicly about gender and racial pay gaps at Pinterest, Aerica Shimizu Banks didnt think she would be able to get a job at a big tech company again. She doesnt think she wants to either.

Banks, along with Ozoma, quit the company in May 2020 after saying they were underpaid and alleged racial discrimination at the company. The company investigated their allegations and found no wrongdoing.

Like a handful of other tech whistleblowers, Banks has spent the year since she exposed her employer trying to make things easier for other people thinking about speaking up about workplace and discrimination. After she helped with the effort to craft the Silenced No More Act, Banks started Shiso, an equity and inclusion consulting company that creates frameworks and systems to help companies follow through on diversity and inclusion pledges.

Ive been saying its up to us to make meaning out of moments in our lives, Banks said. So its kind of funny now to be paid by companies to hold them accountable for their actions when before I was ostracized for it.

Though Banks is happy with the way things have turned out for her personally, shes frustrated that little has changed in the industry and at Pinterest. Just as there were many people who supported me and allowed me to come forward with what happened at Pinterest, there are also so many people who are responsible for the racism and sexism and retaliation I experienced there, she said. And very few, if none, of those people have faced any consequences.

In a statement, Pinterest spokesperson Crystal Espinosa said the company has taken a number of steps in the past year to make it a safe and equitable workplace including pay transparency and equity and increasing the percentage of women in leadership from 25% to 30%. Espinosa also said the company supported the Silenced No More Act and committed to implementing it regardless if it passed.

We want every employee to feel safe, championed and empowered to raise any concerns about their work experience, the statement read.

Still, Banks said shed encourage anyone who knew about something unethical happening in their workplace to come forward, albeit with a back-up plan and preparation.

The passing of the Silenced No More Act shows there is an understanding from policymakers that workers need protections to tell the truth and to not just tell their own story, but tell the truth that can protect other people, she said. The appetite for that is growing and the awareness around what our rights as workers really are is growing. I really hope that folks take advantage of this moment and speak out about injustices they see in the workplace.

But for those expecting to expose workplace issues, Banks said to come prepared with documentation, legal advice, and a community of people who have skills that they may not have.

It was a lot of pressure and it was a lot of anxiety, but despite all of that, it was incredibly worthwhile, Banks said.

Laurence Berland probably would not have spoken out against Google publicly if he wasnt thrust into the spotlight for being fired by the company after years of internal employee activism. I never wanted to be a public figure, Berland said.

For the type of internal organizing he was doing which included petitions against the companys contracts with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) he didnt think it made strategic sense to attach his name to it publicly. In fact, Berland is worried about the message conveyed by becoming a public figure for whistleblower work.

I worry about what it looks like when people get the idea that whats required is heroics, he said. That one person is going to change all this in some radical way. I worry that people see someone makes this big public figure kind of move and they think of it as Well, that persons taken care of it.

Now that hes become a sort of involuntary whistleblower, Berland says hes starting to question whether he wants to continue to work in the tech industry.

Part of the issue is you can settle and get a non-disparagement clause and some cash, but it doesnt undo the experience. Even getting reinstated. Theres no trauma for the people who perpetrate this, but for those of us on the other side there is.

Berland was among a group known colloquially as the Thanksgiving Four, named for the holiday timing of their termination. Google says Berland and his colleagues Rebecca Rivers, Paul Duke, Sophie Waldman and later Kathryn Spiers were fired for violating company policies such as accessing and distributing documents they did not have permissions for. The now-former employees, who have been vocal either internally or externally about a host of ethical and workplace issues, say they were fired because of their years of activism.

Since then, the National Labor Relations Board has found validity in their complaints and accused Google of illegally spying on and then firing the workers. Over the last few weeks, the NLRB case has played out over open trial, where Google has argued that even if the ex-employees were fired for protesting against the companys work with the Ice, it would be within the companys right.

But for Berland, his part in the case is, at least formally, over. Google agreed to settle with Berland in July for an undisclosed amount and terms. Though he wouldnt go into details, Berland said the process did change his behavior and forced him to think twice about some of what he would do or write.

Berland, like many of those who spoke to the Guardian, acknowledges the privileged position he was in when he was fired. He already had a lawyer and through his activism work he had developed a community of people who seemed up to support him. Though he didnt set out to be a public whistleblower, that privilege certainly helps when assessing the risks of coming forward, he said.

The thing that I would say to people is try and judge your risk by what you can really tolerate, he said. In a practical sense, what I had that was most important was a savings account. If you cant afford to make rent next month without your paycheck, what pushes you over to taking that risk?

Thats part of why Berland has worked with a group of former and current Google workers to create the co-worker solidarity fund, a non-profit that offers financial, legal and strategic support to folks who want to fight for changes inside their companies.

Were trying to fundraise from workers, not from big money donors because [were] trying to show some solidarity across those kinds of income lines, he said.

Even though she was fired for it, Emily Cunningham would speak out to demand Amazon do more about climate crisis and stand with warehouse workers a million times over, she said.

Cunningham is one of two women terminated by Amazon in 2020 after they helped organize shareholder resolutions, sick outs and other acts of employee activism to force the company to reduce its impact on the climate. Cunningham, who is still working with the group, says the year or so since she was fired has been a transformative experience.

My heart is bigger. My imagination of whats possible when tech workers come together to push one of the largest corporations in the world [is bigger].

Cunninghams continued enthusiasm to take on Amazon is bolstered by her recent victory against the company. Cunningham who, along with Maren Costa, filed a complaint with the NLRB accusing Amazon of firing them in retaliation of their activism was preparing for a long and grueling battle against the company. But the emotionally draining process of a public trial she was warned about didnt come to fruition. Amazon settled with the duo, agreeing to pay them back wages and to post notices in offices and warehouses nationwide that say the company is not allowed to fire workers for organizing.

The legal system is set up to isolate you from other people, because youre not allowed to talk about certain things, said Cunningham. Maren and I werent even allowed to talk to each other about our own testimony. It was one of the hardest things Ive ever done. But it was so satisfying to win against Amazon, especially because winning against Amazon was a win for all workers.

Amazon spokesperson Jose Negrete said the company reached an agreement that resolves the legal issues in this case. The company also said it did not admit liability as part of the agreement.

Cunningham also credited the huge support system of people ready to organize climate actions alongside her. When she sent an emotional plea to Amazon employees asking them to sign on a shareholder resolution to require Amazon to release a climate plan, 8,700 obliged. When Cunningham and Costa were threatened with termination for speaking publicly about Amazon, 400 other workers spoke publicly about the companys role in the climate crisis in protest. When Cunningham and Costa were terminated, Tim Bray a respected engineer and the former vice-president of Amazons cloud computing group resigned in protest.

Read more:

Welcome to the party: five past tech whistleblowers on the pitfalls of speaking out - The Guardian

In May, Google announced plans to enable two-factor authentication (or two-step verification as its referring to the setup) by default to enable more security for many accounts. Now its Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and Google is once again reminding us of that plan, saying in a blog post that it will enable two-factor for 150 million more accounts by the end of this year.

In 2018, Google said that only 10 percent of its active accounts were using two-factor authentication. It has been pushing, prodding, and encouraging people to enable the setting ever since. Another prong of the effort will require more than 2 million YouTube creators to turn on two-factor authentication to protect their channels from takeover. Google says it has partnered with organizations to give away more than 10,000 hardware security keys every year. Its push for two-factor has made the technology readily available on your phone whether you use Android or iPhone.

A tool that also helps users keep their accounts secure is using a password manager, and Google now says that it checks over a billion passwords a day via its built-in manager for Chrome, Android, and the Google app. The password manager is also available on iOS, where Chrome can autofill logins for other apps. Google says that soon it will help you generate passwords for other apps, making things even more straightforward. Also coming soon is the ability to see all of your saved passwords directly from the Google app menu.

Last but not least, Google is highlighting its Inactive Account Manager. This is a set of decisions to make about what happens to your account if you decide to stop using it or are no longer around and able to make those decisions.

Google added the feature in 2013 so that you can set a timeout period for your account between three and 18 months of disuse before the Inactive Account Manager protocols take effect. Just in case you only switched accounts or forgot about your login, Google will send an email a month before the limit is up. At that point, you can choose to have your information deleted or have it forwarded to whatever trusted contacts you want to have handling things on your behalf. Googles blog post notes that an inactive account led to the massive Colonial Pipeline attack earlier this year, and just for securitys sake, you probably dont want your digital life simply hanging around unused for whatever hackers are bored in the future.

Read the original post:

Google is about to turn on two-factor authentication by default for millions of users - The Verge

LAGOS, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Google plans to invest $1 billion in Africa over the next five years to ensure access to fast and cheaper internet and will back startups to support the continent's digital transformation, it said on Wednesday.

The unit of U.S. tech company Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) made the announcement at a virtual event where it launched an Africa Investment Fund, through which it will invest $50 million in startups, providing them with access to its employees, network and technologies.

Nitin Gajria, managing director for Google in Africa told Reuters in a virtual interview that the company would among others, target startups focusing on fintech, e-commerce and local language content.

"We are looking at areas that may have some strategic overlap with Google and where Google could potentially add value in partnering with some of these startups," Gajria said.

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, U.S., June 17, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Read More

In collaboration with not-for-profit organisation Kiva, Google will also provide $10 million in low interest loans to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa so they can get through the economic hardship created by COVID-19.

Small businesses in Africa often struggle to get capital because they lack the necessary collateral required by banks in case they default. When credit is available, interest rates are usually too high.

Google said a programme pioneered last year in Kenya in partnership with Safaricom that allows customers to pay for 4G-enabled phones in instalments would be expanded across the continent with mobile operators such as MTN, Orange and Vodacom.

Gajria said an undersea cable being built by Google to link Africa and Europe should come into service in the second half of next year and is expected to increase internet speeds by five times and lower data costs by up to 21% in countries like South Africa and Nigeria.

Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; editing by Jason Neely, Kirsten Donovan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Go here to read the rest:

Google to invest $1 billion in Africa over five years - Reuters

Sarah Tew/CNET

T-Mobile has expanded its partnership with Google, according to an Oct. 4 blog post, giving customers access to a Google One cloud storage plan that isn't available to most Google users. On Oct. 12, T-Mobile customers will gain access to an exclusive Google One plan -- 500 GB for $5 per month after a 30-day free trial.

The new plan offers more storage than Google One's standard plan, which is 200GB for $3 per month. If you're looking at cost efficiency, the T-Mobile plan is more cost-effective, netting you 100GB of storage per dollar, versus about 67GB per dollar from the standard plan.

Discover the latest news and best reviews in smartphones and carriers from CNET's mobile experts.

T-Mobile's blog post also says that customers will also have the option of ta 2TB plan at $10 per month. However, that appears identical to the pricing listed for other Google One customers, so there doesn't seem to be anything special in that offer.

If you find yourself eating up online storage quickly, the 500GB plan offers good value, but it's likely excessive for anyone who isn't drowning in photos and videos.

Here is the original post:

T-Mobile partners with Google to offer customers exclusive Google One plan - CNET

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

This week: lots of events and showcases! Nilay, Dieter, and Verge managing editor Alex Cranz start the show with coverage of all the devices announced at Amazons fall hardware event. Say hello to Astro Alexa on wheels along with a video chat gadget for kids, an Echo Show to hang on your wall, new wearable devices, and a whole lot more.

Google also held an event this week focusing on its core search functions with products like Google Maps, Google Lens, and of course, shopping and e-commerce. The crew discusses the important announcements.

There are more events covered in this weeks Vergecast! Verge senior reporter Alex Heath joins the show to discuss what happened at Code Conference this year with interviews with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and many others.

You can listen to the full discussion here or in your preferred podcast player.

Stories discussed this week:

Go here to see the original:

Vergecast: Amazons fall hardware event, Googles Search On event, and Code Conference 2021 - The Verge

Google yesterday agreed to a request from the Government of Canada and changed the results that appear when travellers coming to Canada search for the ArriveCan app an effort toprotect travellersfrom payingunnecessary fees to phoney websites.

ArriveCan is the app the government uses to record international visitsfor the purposes of trackingCOVID-19. Both Canadian residents and foreign visitors are required to have it.

But scammers have taken advantage of that requirement byseeking to divert travellers onto fake ArriveCan websites and charging them for the service.

Until yesterday, Google was inadvertently helping one of those websites entice traffic by selling it advertising space at the top of search engine results for "ArriveCan."

For example, a traveller planning to fly from Heathrow to Torontowho searched for the ArriveCan app on Google's U.K. sitewould see at the top of the page a listing entitled "Travel Declaration Canada - Fast and Easy Application" leading to the URL arrivecan-online.com.

A small box markedthe listing as an ad but it was otherwise verysimilar to other search results. The listing frequently appeared above the real Government of Canada website, entitled "Use ArriveCan to enter Canada," which leads to canada.ca > coronavirus-disease-covid-19.

A traveller who entered the former site the one not operatedby the Government of Canada would go through a series of pages asking for personal and travel information. That travellermight or might not notice the small-print disclaimeracknowledgingthe page "is owned and operated by a private travel agency which is not affiliated, enforced or sponsored by the Canadian Government or governmental agencies."

To complete the form, an applicant is required to pay US$65. The payment goes to a company called Elvisa Online Travel located in the city of Vic in Spain's Catalonia region.

The small print on the page says the payment is for "assistance services to individuals in completing and submitting an ArriveCAN form with their contact details and health information as required by the Government to visit the country. Our services are offered for a private fee. You can also make your health declaration on your own, directly on the Government's website here, but without our professional review and expert help."

Andre Gagnon of the Public Health Agency of Canada saidthat the sitewas providing nousefulservice.

"These fraudulent sites have no association with ArriveCAN, so there is no data being received from them," he said.

The real ArriveCan app can be downloaded for free, either fromthe Apple app store or the Google Play store. It'samong the most-downloaded apps in Canada, with well over 100,000 reviews posted on the two download sites.The app is designed to be simple enough for travellers to complete without assistance andboth Google and Apple customers give it generally high marks.

The Government of Canada has warned ArriveCan users to beware of outside parties charging fees since the launch of the app earlier this year, warning that "if the ArriveCAN app or web page prompts you for payment, it is fraudulent."

But scammers have still been able to make money byusing Google to steer people onto their pages.

On Monday, a week after CBC News initially inquired about the scam,Gagnon told CBC News that "the Government of Canada is aware and is in communication with Google about this issue."

Google pulled down the ad that evening.

"We prohibit ads that mislead users about the advertiser's affiliation with the government or services offered. When we find ads that violate our policies, we take immediate action and in this case have removed the ads from running on our platforms," a Google Canada spokesperson told CBCNews, saying the specific violation was of Google's government services policy.

Link:

Google agrees to government request to pull ads linking to fake travel sites - CBC.ca

Demis Hassabis, co-founder of Google's artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepMind.

Jeon Heon-Kyun | Getty Images

LONDON Alphabet's Google and sister firm DeepMind are facing legal action for the way in which they obtained and processed over a million patient health records without consent in the U.K.

British law firm Mishcon de Reya told CNBC Friday it had filed a claim with the High Court on behalf of Andrew Prismall and roughly 1.6 million other individuals whose medical records were obtained by DeepMind as part of an effort to develop a patient monitoring app called Streams.

"As a patient having any sort of medical treatment, the last thing you would expect is your private medical records to be in the hands of one of the world's biggest technology companies," said Prismall, who was a patient at the hospital where the Streams app was developed, in a statement.

"I hope that this case will help achieve a fair outcome and closure for all of the patients whose confidential records were obtained in this instance without their knowledge or consent," he added.

DeepMind declined to comment when contacted by CNBC, while Google did not immediately respond.

DeepMind, a London artificial intelligence lab that was acquired by Google in 2014, found itself in the spotlight in 2016 when the New Scientist reported that its collaboration with the U.K.'s National Health Service went beyond what was publicly announced.

DeepMind and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust signed a deal in 2015 that gave DeepMind access to pseudonymized patient data.

The U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) ruled in 2017 that the data-sharing agreement between DeepMind and the NHS failed to comply with data protection law.

"Our investigation found a number of shortcomings in the way patient records were shared for this trial," Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said in a statement at the time. "Patients would not have reasonably expected their information to have been used in this way."

However, a later audit of the data-sharing agreement by law firm Linklaters concluded Royal Free London's use of Streams was lawful and complied with data protection laws.

Mishcon Partner Ben Lasserson said in a statement that the planned lawsuit "should help to answer fundamental questions about the handling of sensitive personal data."

He added that "it comes at a time of heightened public interest and understandable concern over who has access to people's personal data and medical records and how this access is managed."

Elsewhere, the NHS has also been criticized for signing a data-sharing agreement last year with U.S. company Palantir. The data analytics firm was co-founded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel who was an early investor in DeepMind.

Privacy campaigners and human rights activists cited ethical and moral concerns when they launched a campaign in June to try to stop Palantir from working with the NHS. Since its inception, the publicly listed company has worked with spy agencies, border forces and militaries, with the finer details of contracts often kept private.

Clive Lewis, a Labour Party member of the U.K.'s parliament and one of the campaign's backers, accused Palantir of having an "appalling track record." Palantir has declined to respond to these comments.

The "No Palantir in Our NHS" campaign comes after Palantir partnered with the NHS on a Covid-19 "Data Store," which was designed to help the government and health service use data to monitor the spread of the virus.

Read more here:

Google and DeepMind face lawsuit over deal with Britains National Health Service - CNBC

Thank you for the article regarding Googles proposed deal with the City of The Dalles for additional data centers (Google wants a lot more water and a new tax deal for big data center expansion in The Dalles, Sept. 27). It is important to cover issues like these for eastern Oregon residents.

Last winter, we were interested in purchasing some light industrial property in The Dalles area. As we began our search, we soon realized that there is an extremely limited supply of light industrial land available. After finding one acceptable parcel, we asked the city to provide information on electrical and water availability, since we would need a reliable source of both. The city told us they would have to get back to us with that information. They never did answer our questions, even after repeated requests. Now I know why they couldnt/wouldnt answer our questions; they were waiting to find out what Google needed. Google already owns much of the industrial land in the city, and now it wants even more water than it already uses.

The city and Google wont even tell the community how much water the company will need. Its a trade secret. The aquifer it wishes to draw from has been designated a critical groundwater area since 1959. Can we really expect that the city wont need this water for their constituents in the future, especially if climate change reduces water availability? What will this huge draw on the aquifer do to surrounding properties? It appears that what Google wants Google gets, and as in most political decisions, money and influence mean more than doing the right thing for the people of the community or for the environment.

Gary Wade, The Dalles

Read the original post:

Readers respond: Serving Google, not the community - OregonLive

Many of the tools we use everyday -- from tools on our apps to streaming videos -- are in the cloud. The internet has fundamentally changed the way we access the things we want; and three companies are the kings of cloud computing:Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN),Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT), andAlphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google.

But a tiny company is rapidly stealing market share away from these players by focusing on very small customers and offering up simple tools with transparent pricing. That company is Digital Ocean(NYSE:DOCN), and in its short time on the public markets, it has performed remarkably well.

But can it continue to do well when it's facing such behemoths? In this video, recorded Sept. 19, from Motley Fool contributors Brian Stoffel and Brian Feroldi, listen to them break down the bull and bear cases for Digital Ocean. At the end, they'll reveal how the stock fared in their investing frameworks.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

Visit link:

Could This Tiny Company Take on Amazon, Microsoft, and Google... And Win? - Motley Fool

Google has created new images designed to be used for your Google profile picture, the company announced Monday. The new images, called Google Illustrations, look quite nice, and they could also be useful for people who want to associate an image with their account but dont want to use a photo of themselves.

Google looks to have a wide variety of options, some of which you can see in the image at the top of this post. And you can see more in the below GIF, which shows different categories of images such as animals, technology, and space.

The new library of illustrations indicates that Google is taking a different approach from avatars like Snaps Bitmoji or Microsofts Xbox avatars, which can let you make stylized representations of what you look like. Googles new illustrations instead give you a wide variety of generic things and places to use for your avatar.

Right now, however, the illustrations are only available to Android users, according to Google. If youre on Android, you can set one as your profile pic in Google Workspace and Contacts on Android follow the steps in this GIF from Google if you want to do that.

Google says its working on bringing the new illustrations to iOS and web and to more products. The company says its also going to expand the collection of illustrations available, so if you dont see one you like now, check back when Google has added more.

See the original post here:

Google is brightening up your Gmail avatar with new illustrations - The Verge