'Lake America' makes one thing clear: We can't trust U.S. tech companies

k310

Google and Apple (soon) make foldable phones. And why not? Their CEO's are foldable as well. "Don't be Evil" Folded. So here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. Here’s to you. Folded

kashunstva

As a Canadian living in Canada, I see “Lake Ontario.” in Apple Maps. All good. No idea what Google shows because I don’t knowingly use Google products. But I do see the ridiculous “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” I don’t care what Apple shows inside of U.S. borders but dragging the rest of the world into the clown show is unnecessary. Although I haven’t much thought through the details, I wonder if these disputed names could be subject to user preference. Basically, a pre-MAGA and MAGA setting.

tfwnopmt

mapquest is from the US too

add-sub-mul-div

Another way to look at it is that when adults are back in charge, we can trust tech companies will fall in line with them too.

ebbi

I remember when tech news sites used to (rightfully) harp on about Chinese tech companies and how they should not be trusted given they satisfy every whim of the CCP. But now large tech companies in America can't even challenge the naming of a Lake and just folded, meekly.

ModernMech

Amazing how eager they were to do this, and not a week later he's talking about renaming the Strait of Hormuz, New Mexico, and claimed to own the Moon. I wonder if he renames the Moon to Trump, will Google rename Google Moon to Google Trump? Will they rename New Mexico to New America? Will Google rename Tuesday to Trumpday if Trump demands it? Probably yes, the consensus seems to be it's their duty to do so.

jmclnx

Personally I believe you cannot trust the US Gov. since Citizens United. This seems not only to allow the rich to purchase politicians, but under Trump it allows the current administration to extort companies. So, companies can easily pay Trump for favors with out any consequences, but they just need to keep the money train going and kowtow to Trump's insane whims.

davesque

And then he wanted New Mexico to be New America. Capitulation is not just about what they're asking for now, but also what they'll be emboldened to ask for in the future.

Varelion

STOP. RELYING. ON. THE. UNITED. STATES. AND. ITS. ECONOMIC. SYSTEM. Build and trade amongst yourselves instead of relying on this house of cards. Buy European. Buy Canadian.

capnjazz

Hmmm, I feel like it would also be problematic if Google and Apple acted as unelected geographic authorities and deciding which names are politically legitimate

sokoloff

The executive orders are ridiculous/childish/whatever-you-call-this. That aside, if they have any legal effect, I’d expect a map company to call a feature by its legal name. Should a rendering of the land bordering the Southwest corner of the Black Sea show the city of Istanbul? Or must it remain depicted as Constantinople? Or perhaps even Byzantium?

GMoromisato

I personally would rather have a democratically-elected government--no matter how awful--pick names rather than have corporations pick names. Also, I was curious, so I looked it up: Congress passed a law (Public Law 80-242) in 1947 that allowed the executive branch to establish a single set of geographic names. Conservatives famously protested when the Obama administration renamed Mt. McKinley to Denali. I have no doubt that when a Democratic administration returns to power, they will rename a bunch of stuff, now that the precedence is set. My guess is we're going to go through a ping-pong of renames before the law gets changed to require some kind of independent group, or a super-majority of senators or something.

JohnFen

Honestly, that we can't trust tech companies has been very clear for years now.

gonzalohm

It is funny that there are people defending Google because "it's the law and they have to follow it" when Google is completely ignoring privacy laws around the world. They could have done the same right? They probably even have a team specifically for evading the law

pedalpete

As a Canadian, I agree this is ridiculous. Having worked in the mapping sector for a bit, it makes sense. Google/Apple are not deciding what the lake is called. They are pulling data from the GNIS. This way people in a region will see what their government decides is the correct version for their people. Let's take this out of the heated debate. In the most of the world and Iran (strangely we agree on this), we recognize a body of water known as the Persian Gulf. For the Arab League states, they call this the Arabian Gulf. Is that Google being evil? Should Google decide what this is called? Or just leave it to the region to decide themselves. What about the border of Kashmir? How should they handle that?

m-p-3

I simply hope this ushers a new wave of data sovereignty in Canada, and makes our elected officials more conscious of where our data resides and is processed.