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Google, what were you thinking? by Stefan
[Updated (22:00 GMT 14-1-2011): Google has apologized]
I’m very proud of the business that we’ve created here at Mocality, but I’m especially proud of two things:
- Our crowdsourcing program. When we started this business, we knew that (unlike in the UK or US, where you can just kickstart your directory business with a DVD of business data bought from a commercial supplier), if we wanted a comprehensive database of Kenyan business, we would have to build it ourselves. We knew also that if we wanted to build the business quickly, we’d have to engage a lot of Kenyans to help us. So we built our crowd program that utilises M-PESA (Kenya’s ubiquitous Mobile Money system) to reward any Kenyan with a mobile phone who contributes entries to our database, once those entries have been validated by our team. Over two years, we’ve paid out Ksh. 11m (over $100,000) to thousands of individuals, and we have built Kenya’s most comprehensive directory, with over 170,000 verified listings. Personally, I regard the program as one of THE highlights of my 18 year career on the internet.
- From day 1, we aimed to target all Kenyan businesses, irrespective of size. As a result, for about 2/3rds of our listed businesses, Mocality is their first step onto the web. That’s about 100,000 businesses that Mocality has brought online.
Please bear these two facts in mind as you read what follows.
Our database IS our business, and we protect and tend it very carefully. We spot and block automated attacks, amongst other measures. We regularly contact our business owners, to help them keep their records up-to-date, and they are welcome to contact our call centre team for help whenever they need it.
In September, Google launched Getting Kenyan Businesses Online (GKBO). Whilst we saw aspects of their program that were competitive, we welcomed the initiative, as Kenya still has enough growth in it that every new entrant helps the overall market. We are also confident enough in our product, our local team, and our deep local commitment that we believe we can hold our own against any competition, playing fair.
Shortly after that launch, we started receiving some odd calls. One or two business owners were clearly getting confused because they wanted help with their website, and we don’t currently offer websites, only a listing. Initially, we didn’t think much of it, but the confusing calls continued through November.
The Forensic analysis
What follows is necessarily a little technical. I’ve tried to make it as clear as I can, but two definitions may help the lay reader:
- IP Address – the numerical id by which computers identify themselves online.
- User-Agent - When a browser requests a page from a webserver, it tells the server what make, model, and version of browser it is, so that the webserver can serve content tailored to that browser’s capabilities. Webservers keep a log of both these details for every page requested, allowing us to do interesting detective work.
If you’re not interested in the technical details, you can always jump straight to the Conclusion.
At the start of December we analysed our server logs to look for a common pattern for the businesses that had contacted us with these confused calls. We found a single IP/ User-Agent combination that had accessed all these businesses:
IP Address: 41.203.221.138
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686) AppleWebKit/535.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/14.0.835.186 Safari/535.1
The user agent is unusual for Kenya: the stable version of Google Chrome released on 20 September 2011, running on 32-bit Linux. With the exception of this IP, it barely appears in our logs.
We looked up the ownership record for 41.203.221.138 via WHOIS.
% Information related to '41.203.220.0 - 41.203.221.255' inetnum: 41.203.220.0 - 41.203.221.255 netname: Fixed_Wimax-Fiber-Rollout-Central-Kenya descr: Fixed Wimax and Fiber Roll out for Central Kenya Region country: KE admin-c: OC406-AFRINIC tech-c: OC406-AFRINIC status: ASSIGNED PA mnt-by: ONECOM-MNT remarks: Wimax and Fiber Roll out for Central Kenya Region source: AFRINIC # Filtered parent: 41.203.208.0 - 41.203.223.255
So a Kenyan ISP. But how were they accessing us? We did some analysis.
Of the 65,851 requests, there were 33,261 requests to a Business Profile page, i.e. accessing the contact details for a business.
Further details:
- No evidence of automated scraping, this appears to be a team of humans.
- Since 3 Nov, requests originate from a WIMAX connection in Nairobi (41.203.221.138). Prior to that, various addresses.
- Business profile requests are referred by Mocality search result pages having 100 results/page
- Peak rates are 2500 pages per day (1.73 per minute)
- The User-Agent originated from many different IPs starting on 4 September, started scraping on 12 October, abrubtly stopped on 29 October, resumed on 3 November from the Safaricom Wimax IP.
- Pattern of access is mainly 8am-6pm Weekdays, a few hours on Saturday, and never Sunday.
- No other non-robot (IP,User-Agent) combination has such a pattern of activity at that scale (2500/day).
So a person or (judging by the access rate) team of people were systematically accessing our database, during office hours, and it looked like they moved into a new office over the weekend at the start of November. But who were they, and what were they doing?
The Sting
We decided to find out. We made some changes to the site:
- For visitors from the 41.203.221.138 address, we changed the code to serve slightly different content 10% of the time.
- Instead of the real business phone number, we served a number that fed through to our call centre team, where the incoming calls would also be recorded. Our team were briefed to act like the business owners for the calls.
We switched the new code on December 21st.
When we listened to the calls, we were beyond astonished.
Results
I’d like you to meet Douglas. On this call (first 2 minutes) you can clearly hear Douglas identify himself as Google Kenya employee, state, and then reaffirm, that GKBO is working in collaboration with Mocality, and that we are helping them with GKBO, before trying to offer the business owner a website (and upsell them a domain name). Over the 11 minutes of the whole call he repeatedly states that Mocality is with, or under (!) Google.
Between 10am and 1pm on December 21st, we received 6 others just like it (from 5 different Google Kenya employees) before switching back to normal service. We estimate that this team were calling 20-25 Mocality business per hour, since 7 calls over 3 hours, only 10% of calls redirected: 7*10/3= 23.3. calls/hour)
On all calls, the same script is followed – A Google Kenya employee calls a Mocality business and tries to deceive them into signing up for their competing product, by claiming that we are working together.
It gets worse: Here’s a complete transcript ( with translation of the kiSwahili portions) of a another call, in which the caller goes further, claiming that Mocality engages in bait-and-switch practices to try and charge businesses upto Ksh. 20,000 ($200) for their listings. Mocality has never and will never charge for listings. The irony: on the same call, the caller tries exactly that tactic for GKBO’s hosting fees.
I have redacted the details (except first name) of both parties on the call, and highlighted key sections in YELLOW.
What happened next?
Having gathered our evidence, and needing to wait for transcription and translation (as parts of the conversations were in kiSwahili (the local East African language)) of the recordings , and feeling pleased with detective work, we had a lovely Christmas break. I started writing this blog post.
So that we had the latest stats on our return to work, we re-analysed the logs, on Monday 9th January.
There were no further accesses from the IP address 41.203.221.138 after 4pm 23rd December. Co-incidence? or had someone realised we were onto them?
However, there were some NEW strange messages from business owners- they’d apparently been contacted by a call centre in India with the same promise of a website.
So we reran the whole analysis. We quickly identified a new IP/User-Agent combination.
Results (2)
We found another IP address and User-Agent that accessed two businesses that had been contacted:
IP Address: 74.125.63.33
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/535.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/16.0.912.63 Safari/535.7
WHOIS Information
NetRange: 74.125.0.0 - 74.125.255.255 CIDR: 74.125.0.0/16 OriginAS: NetName: GOOGLE NetHandle: NET-74-125-0-0-1 Parent: NET-74-0-0-0-0 NetType: Direct Allocation RegDate: 2007-03-13 Updated: 2007-05-22 Ref: http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-74-125-0-0-1 OrgName: Google Inc. OrgId: GOGL Address: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway City: Mountain View StateProv: CA PostalCode: 94043 Country: US RegDate: 2000-03-30 Updated: 2011-09-24 Ref: http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/GOGL OrgAbuseHandle: ZG39-ARIN OrgAbuseName: Google Inc OrgAbusePhone: +1-650-253-0000 OrgAbuseEmail: arin-contact@google.com OrgAbuseRef: http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/ZG39-ARIN OrgTechHandle: ZG39-ARIN OrgTechName: Google Inc OrgTechPhone: +1-650-253-0000 OrgTechEmail: arin-contact@google.com OrgTechRef: http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/ZG39-ARIN
These new accesses were coming directly from Google’s network.
The IP address 74.125.63.33 made 17,645 requests (15,554 to BusinessProfile.aspx). Activity really kicked off on 22 December 2011, with 8 different user agents mostly running Chrome on Linux: The top 3 are :
- Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/535.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/16.0.912.63 Safari/535.7 11249 64.268982
- Mozilla/5.0 (Ubuntu; X11; Linux x86_64; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1 4247 24.264412
- Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/535.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Ubuntu/10.04 Chromium/15.0.874.106 Chrome/15.0.874.106 Safari/535.2 1000 5.713306
Search for “tag=mo.request 74.125.63.33″ from 20 December 2011 to 9 January 2012. Found 17,049 requests
On 10th January, we re-enabled the Sting code. Again, within a couple of hours, we’d received calls from the new call centre to our dummy numbers.
Here is Deepthi, from Google India. On this call, you can hear her talking about her partnership with Mocality, and offering us a free website.
It looks like Google has now outsourced the Getting Kenya Businesses Online operation to India!
Conclusion
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.
Google is a key part of our business strategy. Mocality will succeed if our member businesses are discoverable by people via Google. We actually track how well our businesses place on Google as a key metric, and have always regarded it as a symbiotic relationship. We are in the business of creating local Kenyan content that Google can sell their adwords against. More than 50% of our non-direct traffic comes via Google (paid or organic). For us, the cost of going elsewhere is NOT zero.
Furthermore, we spend a very significant sum on advertising with Google Kenya. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are one of their largest local customers, between Mocality and our sister site Dealfish.co.ke.
Kenya has a comparatively well-educated but poor population and high levels of unemployment. Mocality designed our crowd sourcing program to provide an opportunity for large numbers of people to help themselves by helping us. By apparently systematically trawling our database, and then outsourcing that trawl to another continent, Google isn’t just scalping us, they’re also scalping every Kenyan who has participated in our program.
I moved to Africa from the UK 30 months ago to be CEO of Mocality. When I moved, Kenya’s reputation as a corrupt place to do business made me nervous. I’ve been very happily surprised- until this point, I’ve not done business with any company here that was not completely honestly conducted. It is important for global businesses to adapt to local cultural practice, but ethics are an invariant. As a admirer of Google’s usually bold ethical stance around the world, to find those principles are not applied in Kenya is simply… saddening.
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
Nairobi, Kenya
stefan@mocality.com
+254710103500
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
Tweet
I am stunned! “Do No Evil” indeed.
Define what is evil. Poltician thinks it’s evil if money wasn’t involved in politics. A rabid internet user thinks it’s evil that money is involved with politics. So next time you ass-hats are going to say “google doesn’t do evil”, please have the ****ing courtasee TO DEFINE YOUR DEFINITION OF “GOOD” AND “EVIL, BECAUSE IT’S OBVIOUSLY VARRIES FROM INDIVIDUAL, YOU DUMB **********************************************************
Replace “Google doesn’t do evil” with “do no evil”
Shut yer pie hole, clown.
Evil is like porn – you know it when you see it.
Oluniyi,
I’m stunned that you’re stunned.
Google has shown that they’re willing and able to abide by having different sets of rules for different parties in their conduct with search ranking parameters, and even in their competitive conduct a la YouTube and intellectual property.
Yes, we all admire (and use) their technology, but startups and upstarts, especially in Africa would do well to assume darker competitive impulses from our friends in technology. Companies that do “lethal damage” to innovative startups like mocality, actually do mortal damage to much larger ecosystems of innovation and change than even they may realize.
I’m taking this much more personally than even Stephan seems to be taking it, and I for one, feel that an apology is not enough! I will be waiting with bated breath for an explanation/reason and a systemic corporate resolution that I feel will assure us that other upcoming brands in other countries will not face this sort of anti-competitive assault.
Gogo Erekosima
African Innovation Project
I agree with Gogo. This is an attack on the whole startup ecosystem — and that of a developing market. I use Google products like everyone else because they’re usually far superior to other options (like Yahoo!), but I’ve always wondered about their practices. They’re a big public corporation now, and I wish that they stood up for the little startups (and remember that they once were the little guy). Even their willingness to hand over emails to the US Government has me wondering about whether or not they care to use their power for “good” anymore — and what I mean by good is an action that protects others . And now this…I don’t understand it.
Not the best of a gesture for hard earned content by the small website. Ideally Google is taking everything that small website had worked so hard to create. Many nights of designing directories and gathering content wasted.
..As much as i love google they went alittle overboard here.
“..As much as i love google they went alittle overboard here.”
A little overboard? Really?
Such actions are criminal in nature, and can get those who planned them (in the US) sent to JAIL.
Talk about Teflon! This is the same company that “accidentally” was snooping on open WIFIs while “mapping” streets *all over the world*. Their Chrome browser insists on HTTPSing to mother ship in CA (and just try to get it to stop ..) and now they are ghettoizing the web with their +.
Just because they /say/ “do no evil” and use primary kindergarden colors in their logo pleased do not be lulled into an infantile mindset.
…Except none of the things you listed are evil. Sure, they can be used for evil, but who would think that mapping open networks would be evil? You wander through the city and hey, there’s a coffee shop and hey, there’s the SJFreeDowntownWIFI and there’s the Mountain View free wifi… It’s not evil. It’s called unintentional effects.
This article is about actual evil, not unintentional. Don’t conflate the two, it weakens your point.
I’m sure you meant well, but “alittle overboard” is understatement indeed. They should really find out who was responsible for this action and by the evidence provided in this blog, it’s got to be someone quite high.
Google should really look into this and see if there are other breaches of privacy and malpractices.
That was a little understatement there.
This is very sad. I always though and held Google in the most positive light. Disappointed!
Kelvin, you must be kidding, or naive.
If you use Google services (search, apps, news, email, youtube, etc.) then they undoubtedly have more data on you than anyone else. Even without using the apps, with every page that serves a Google advert, they know when you hit it, what site, what type of content, how often you go back, etc. They have the potential to be *very* nasty!
That does not mean anything in the light of what has happened with Mocality. People compromise their privacy to Google and get more value addition in return. That’s a personal choice.
But what Google has done here is outright criminal. Waiting for someone from Mountain View to preach their PR-crafted apology soon
Yeah, this isn’t even something google is doing by virtue of its sheer size. This is something a two-bit bullshit SEO scammer would do. It boggles my mind.
Alistair,
Just because they have the potential to be evil doesn’t mean they inherently are. No doubt, if they had approached their business with anything but doing good, they wouldn’t have the success they do now. Once a company goes public, the founders loose a lot of control. They have been caught with their pants down here without a doubt, but what isn’t clear is whether or not this was a sanctioned action by corporate and how they will atone for this mistake now that it’s public.
In the big picture, Google is a really positive company for its size. They’re carbon neutral for crying out loud. Google produces all the power it consumes from solar panels. Apple on the other hand puts up suicide nets to prevent workers from killing themselvs…in the world of evil companies, there are one or two in the line ahead of the big G.
Pick your poison.
I’ve sent this post to a contact at Google’s Mtn View campus. I suspect there will be a response fairly soon.
What is the relevance of Apple here? This is about a nasty thing Google has done. Stick to the point and don’t insult victims further with apologist drivel that doesn’t even have the decency of relevance.
Relevance?! Wait what?
Apple is one of Google’s direct competitors in a LOT of fields. Between, Chrome Browser, Android OS, Chrome Tv and interface development… about the only thing Google has Apple doesn’t is a search engine.
And sure, Google does a lot of naughty crap–like this here. Apple does much much worse. Another of Google’s competitors is Facebook… and honestly, I dislike the notions of both Google+ and Facebook on the merits they are two centralised for a proper internet conceptualisation… but between the day, I’d trust Google over Mark Zuckerberg, as even with crap like this occurring quire frequently, Google STILL has a better track record than Zuckerberg.
Yeah… okay, Google does some pretty nasty stuff… the point was: out of all the big evil corporations, Google counts as the good guys. This doesn’t really speak so much for Google, so much as against the other guys.
And sure, yeah–you are pissed… but, where do we go instead? Until you can answer, “well, what else do we do?”, shut the fuck up, okay. You are NOT helping… you are just being a whiny little bitch. An annoying whiny little bitch too–that does nothing to help, and only serves to hurt things worse.
You sir, are the problem, on the grounds of not offering a solution… and not even trying to find one.
You have absolutely Zero understanding of Apple. And properly the same for Google.
What Google did was not good. But the amount of information Google has on a person has nothing to do with the criminal act they committed on Mocality. You ISP has just as much information if not more on you then Google. Their knowledge spans across not just want you search on Google but what you search on any engine, what sites you go to, time, dates, how long you stay on that site, ip address, ip address associated with your online persona.
To clarify Google trying to steal business away using shady practices wrong, them collecting information isn’t because that is the cost of using their services.
isp has more info than google? That certainly is a positive look at Google.
This is not necessarily true all transactions conducted through the https (secure http) protocol are opaque to the ISP.
Alistair-
Yes, they have the potential for being very nasty. But that, in itself, isn’t grounds for conviction. Every woman on the planet has the potential for being a prostitute, too.
Reading the transcript and listening to the recordings, it was obvious that the caller had little to no familiarity with typical internet use, the moment they were forced to divert from their script.
My money would be on a mid to upper level manager in Kenya having built himself a tidy little racket using Google resources. Should it have been detected long ago? Of course. But that doesn’t make Google “evil” any more than it makes my mother a prostitute.
Shocking and stupid. They are not the only ones though. Stefan can you categorically and publicly confirm that no MIH property is involved in contacting the customers of your competitors in this way?
Agree! Are you SURE no other MIH property has done this before.
I’m not surprised. I’ve been a huge critic of Google and have almost always questioned their intentions and strategy in Africa. With some more investigative journalism, we can all expose their EVIL deeds. Thanks for this, Stefan!
Stepping on others to try and get on top, shame on google.
Someone pinch me! Unto those to whom much is given much is expected, mocality and team ought to get justice for this blatant mediocrity
I am not surprised. Stefan, clearly Google Kenya has to prove existence. Their business policy is: cripple / kill your competition. Period. Ruthless!! Even if an apology were to be given, damage will have already been done. Pole
Cant believe Mocality is still up.. how much more of Naspers money are you going to waste. Can believe Koos hasnt killed this operation.
Hmmm, anonymous poster randomly speaking out against the blog poster and his company. Do I smell a troll, or a Google Kenya employee?
[...] is a damning post out by Stefan Magdalinski on some unsavory business practices being done by Google Kenya against [...]
Shame Google !! First, you kill ads website by launching Google Trader and now this !!! So you tried for years to get local content for African into your sub-websites but because you failed to attract users, you decided to steal content !!
I hope we will get a clear explanation by Google Kenya
As someone who has tremendously benefited from Mocality and esp Dealfish,in terms of advertising and business growth,i am appalled with this,Google should have just asked for the info considering the amount of revenue they get from dealfish,i mean anything you search for on google usually has dealfish/mocallity as the premier result!!!
UTTER SHOCK!!!
Shame on you Google!!!!
Goes to show the unscrupulous practices big corporates engage in! Remember BA vs Virgin Wars. In fact there is a book on the same called Dirty Tricks: British Airways’ Secret War Against Virgin Atlantic
Fraud of epic proportions. Someone should answer for this.
Great investigation by the way.
Question: Why didn’t you block the rouge IP address(es)?
Am wondering too….. to set a trap is a perfect reason. We also monitor ip addresses accessing our online directory site..so i wonder why mocality did not block them yet such an issue happening daily leaves a clear footprint.
Anyway even if they want to take legal action its a Kenyan firm which did the dirty work with or without the knowledge of google. That firm am sure has no financial strength to pay mocality in comparison to the big fish google. Mocality’s trap just trapped a small fish and lots of publicity
heehee stupid for Google to engage in such an affair with the understanding they have of the internet really!!!! big ups to the mocality team!!!!!
First of all let me say this is shocking, and I hope that the flagrant abuse of your data stops and you get recompense for the damage done to our business.
I’d be wary of chucking accusations directly at Google without first ascertaining if it was Google themselves who designed this strategy, or they simply outsourced it to another company without properly putting the appropriate checks and measures in place to ensure it was fair and above board.
Google certainly need censuring, after all it’s their logo at the top of the page, but they may not be alone.
Good luck!
WHOA! That is seriously uncool. I hope you’ve taken this matter up with Google Headquarters (not Google Kenya) ? Or will you be going the legal route?
I cannot believe Google is doing this against a developing country! Am behind mocality by all means and I suggest that you should put some Legal charges against them!
….and here we go around in circles. start a list of who is scraping content from who?
google scrapes mocality
pigiame scrapes google trader
njorku scrapes dealfish
So they fraudulently claim to be working with you yet you believe the claim they’re google? Maybe they are, maybe they’re not…did you investigate any further with your sting operation or simply hear the name “google” and assume?
I don’t know if you read the whole article, but did you notice how the second set of calls were correlated with unusual activity from a range of IP addresses owned by Google?
And I don’t know if you’ve heard of the google global cache (GGC) that was implemented in Kenya in the first half of last year?
I may have misunderstood, but I thought from the blog post that the callers were selling GKBO products (so if they’re not Google, they’re kind well-wishers giving Google some free marketing – or, at best, some kind of reseller).
Either way, if people are committing fraud *claiming* to be from Google, it’s now up to Google to show that they aren’t behind it (and engage in their own fraud investigation, doubtless enthusiastically helped by Mocality).
We haven’t posted the full audio. The transcript pdf is complete. Please read.
We see an access from Google in mountain view. we serve them a phone number that leads to our call centre. Shortly after someone calls and tries to sell us a GKBO website.
If, in some way, I’ve got this wrong, and it’s a rogue affiliate, or something else, and the IP/WHOIS is erroneous because of the Google global cache,
I’ve still got 9 recordings of people claiming to be from Google and signing them up for Google’s product (and nothing else).
Stef
If it’s definitely Google’s product they’re selling, that’s pretty conclusive – at best, this might be the work of a reseller of some kind. Either way, it’s definitely Google’s *problem* to some extent, as they are *claiming* to be from Google.
The stuff about coming from Google-owned IP ranges is damning, too, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it’s not conclusive, as I suspect you can run proxies on Google Apps and so on.
This is very disappointing – what do Joe Mucheru and Olga Arara have to say? Has Mocality contacted them?
Oh, dear… This is wrong on so many levels. It tops even case of Google profiting from illegal Olympic ticket ads which was highlighted earlier this week.
Thank God its proven, as a Mocality team member I have had really hard time explaining to business owners what is happening since they get strange calls from this white lady from Google, I have been accusedc by the businessmen contacted by Google of selling their info.this is absurd, can’t some action be taken legally? Atleast for the pain I have gone thro!!!
Shame on Google.
[...] the post, Mocality’s CEO, Stefan Magdalinski exposed the search giant’s unsavoury business [...]
Infact am on my way to a meeting with a businessman contacted by Google five times to explain to him what’s going on co he is confused!!!
[...] scamming businesses Google’s ‘Getting Kenyan Businesses Online’ programme is caught red-handed deceiving small [...]
Shocked but not too much. What more have they done to other businesses that we a re not aware of?
I’m surprised there are still people thinking Google is one of the “good guys”. I’ve always mistrusted Google more than Microsoft, or any other IT company.
But I do wonder. Why is Google doing this particular thing? Google is all about making money — do they really think they’ll make enough money out of this operation to make it worthwhile for them?
I’m not certain people are really about “Google being the good guys”… so much as “everybody else is so much worse, comparatively”.
It can be easy to confuse the two concepts without a decade or two of getting completely jaded in this wide and strange world.
Or maybe people believe Google to actually be good guys… I dunno… I just look at it like “Google at least gives a reach around when they are anally reaming me, provided I help them in public… and I think maybe one day, they might give a bit of spit for lube first if I ask them… and this makes them better than the competition… how awesome Google is for this”… so eh, my opinion only makes sense on this matter with a sufficient amount of jaded applied.
Huh, so what happened to do no evil and playing fair? Google- this is downright disgusting!
Anything is possible from their wonder-tricksful geeks in India. Pls send a TOS violation report to Google Head quarters via your attorney as the wouldn’t want to, in any way engage in such an ill hacking activity. I think, Google got legit ways to challenge, and trying to eat up the competitions. Still keep watching and guarding your territory!
Finally, more proof that google isn’t holy, why do people trust these people so much?
A horrific abuse of your data and your brand. Google should be ashamed, but I suspect they aren’t – they simply don’t care about publishers or independent content producers any more.
Don’t give up, keep fighting them and make sure this gets plenty of press coverage. People need to see that Google isn’t their friend, or even a search engine anymore.
Very Sad indeed. I hope they’re taking legal action against Google. This is unfair business practice
This is terrible. The American / international big business practices of “might is right”.
Google must stop this game if they are to uphold their corporate ethics.
So- mocality should just go on and start offering business owners a site. It might not be the plan but hey- google has done the marketing for you
does anyone remember the tarsorrhaphy , mbzrxpgjys and hiybbprqag sting operation!
@KIRAN and others, the scraping isn’t the real issue. A company that makes data publicly available pretty much has to live with the fact that it’ll be scraped, and build that into the business plans so it’s not a problem, or is even an advantage in some way (more exposure!). And as Stefan says, if Google had just asked, they’d probably have been given access to the database anyway.
The issue here is that Google seems to be making fraudulent claims…
I agree with you, putting data in the public domain has its risks, but the whole point of a directory after all is to help people find businesses. Anyone from a potential customer to a fraudster can leaf through the yellow pages and make some calls. Its a risk any business takes by listing in a directory.
It seems rather strange that Google Kenya would do this. The evidence is clear, but I wouldn’t rule out the work of a reseller. The risk/reward trade off for Google doing this just doesn’t add up
I’m not defending Google. Keep that in mind when you read the rest of my comment.
Nobody gets a monopoly by being nice to everybody. Even if Schmidt himself approved this, it would not surprise me.
100k times $10 a year is nice to have potentially, no? So you need to make sure your ROI is high. They seem to be doing that by keeping the I part small.
What’s sadder still? People will probably forget all about this tomorrow, when it’s something else’s turn on the internet.
Good luck!
I don’t think people are forgetting that…. I think people are just aware that Monopolies are anti-capitalistic in nature. Most of the original writers on the ideals of Capitalism pretty much state that if a Monopoly was even in danger of getting put in place, the system would no longer work.
Communism mostly came about from people going with the notion that Monopolies were unavoidable, and just figuring out ways to work it into the system in the least harmful manner.
So yeah… they are not forgetting anything here… they know monopolies suck. They are also aware the goal should not be, in the world of business, to get a monopoly… unless you are an omnicidal maniac. Its like “to be the best human, simply kill off all other humans”… it is not how the system is designed to work–or even a sane way to look at it.
[...] that it has been fraudulently attempting to muscle out a Kenyan local services startup. Mocality Kenya, a business database company that uses paid crowdsourcing to flesh out its entries, discovered what [...]
Deceptive practice
Intellectual property theft
Unfair trading
The list just goes on.
I hope this gets the publicity it merits.
Thanks for taking the time and effort to document and publish your findings, and very best wishes.
have you tried contacting Google about this?
I wonder what Google has to say about this. Not good at all
the problem here isn’t Google using the data, the issue is the false claims they are giving about the relation with Mocality. you should try and seek legal action, it would a significant milestone in this country
I’m appalled. Google’s search engine has been less than satisfactory recently. I’ll give them the boot once I’ve migrated my email.
Wow, what an eye opener, makes you wonder what other dirty tactics they are using elsewhere.
How do we know this isnt a fraud pretending to be Google
if me were mocality and i had this much proof, i would sue and teach them a lesson.
Please post a follow-up when you eventually (if ever) hear from a Mountain View based Googler. Evil indeed!
The bigger they are the harder they fall. Google just enforced the stereotype of american multinationals pushing third world countries as if they own them. market forces are much more dynamic than they think and if history has taught us anything is that this initiative will flop. As a website developer i have officially boycotted Google KBO… Hope all of you who are involved get run over by a bus…. repeatedly
Be careful who you stand on on your way up the ladder, you usually meet them again on your way back down.
This is appaling! i really hope Google will make a public statement on this. Why would they claim to have a relationship with you when they are not? Is the directive from Larry Page (survive by all means)? Is this the best route they could have taken? Google av more questions answer!
[...] Google, what were you thinking? ⇒ January 13th, 2012 ∞ Permalink [...]
This is really shocking and bit extreme even for Google. And if Google has done it, legal steps need to be taken.
Google: DO EVIL.
Is this what vulture capitalism is all about?
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
Considering that whoever called your sting operators lied about allegiance to Mocality, are you convinced they aren’t lying about allegiance to Google?
I understand the evidence that was collected.. web logs aren’t very meaningful but the sales calls surely explain what’s going on.. but does Google really have a motive to do this? It’s easy to blame the big evil corporation sure.. and they do plenty to reinforce that.. but perhaps people have motive to smear Google. Could this just be brand counterfeiting from a competitor? I can pretend to be Google and collect your money all the same.. I might even deliver what I sold you..
-Laszlo
How do you know whoever did the sales calls wasn’t lying? Misappropriating Google’s and Mocality’s trademarks?
Mocality doesn’t need to know if it’s really from Google. They’re reporting what they’ve found and how it *looks* like it’s from Google.
If it’s not from Google we can expect a reply and all will be cleared. It might all be a gigantic coincidence where another company trying to jumpstart Google’s new business division in Kenya is calling people up to pass them customers and then decides to outsource to India and keep up the pretense that they’re google as well.
Remember: The big items are not the web server logs or the IP addresses. Those were the detonators of the “investigation”. The problem is actually the calls and the claims made in those calls by employees purportedly from Google and supposedly in an alliance with Mocality.
Of course, IPs can be faked. But defending that it’s possible to have a google IP without being from Google falls apart when the people using that IP claim to be from google, offer to do business with google and say they’re on google offices. Of course, they could be lying, but it’s a very tortured exercise trying to come up with a reason for scammers to try and sell stuff for someone else that they happen to look like as well.
Well, Google have now admitted it (as seen in various news articles), so…
Simply awful. I urge everyone to take one or two painful days and migrate your Google services elsewhere. It won’t change the fact that they already have your data, but it will at least make a statement.
[...] Google, whаt wеrе уου thinking? [...]
I feel for you Mocality. I’ve always told people that Google is a bad bad monopoly.
If this is Google doing so shame on them. I got a call from India last week in our office telling us to join the “free” kbo sites last week too. I asked the guy to do enough research to realise that all our sites are hosted by us and don’t require free hosting.
If I had known google was behind this, I would have seriously run a number of the fellow.
Google is evil!
Trust no one and by the way that is business premise worldwide.Even the Microsoft and apple had wars like this ones of yours.
Im getting rid of chrome in protest. come on people join me in this boycott, only way to get their attention is to hurt their business. before you know it it will be your business someone else is attacking mercilessly
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
I just so wish you could sue Google. That would send a message across!
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
Oh get a grip – obviously this isn’t “Google” – its a few idiots who work out there in the boondogs.
They explain that the connection is coming from an IP in a range allocated to Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Kermonk, you need to read this more clearly. This was an excelllent job of cyber sleuthing and does point a finger at Google. I think the blog is clear enough to be said too be raising the question and not concluding that Google itself is guilty. That, however, doesn’t mean it isn’t a rogue entity within or without Google perpetrating the unethical activity. It would be difficult to understand how Google could fall prey to such activity within their own camp. They should be among the world’s best at monitoring and eliminating such behavior. I suspect this will be found to be a clever but criminal outside entity. It will be interesting to watch this story unfold..
OMG the IPs all come from “Google HQ” ! Except, only the second time around.
Ever heard of Google Cache ?
It looks like Indians have, unlike the other Kenyans who try to rip off the businesses by convincing them that they are Google, or a Google partner…
[...] I read this interesting and in-depth story where Google crawled data from Mocality, a small Kenyan company publishing an online Kenya business [...]
Ha ha HA! Geez the Kenyan spam and scam queens get handed their arses! How funny. Maybe next time you and your african cohorts who engage in systematic spam, email attacks and all sorts of fraud will think twice before entering the land of the Pure.
Larry
I sincerely hope that this comment came from an impostor and not from the real Larry Page. This kind of bigotist comment is totally unacceptable. “Kenyan spam and scam queens”? Take this isht somewhere else!
Google what do you have to say for yourselves???
…
…
…
…er…
Nothing???
I thought so too!! Shame on you!!!
oh dear.
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
[...] Read the full story posted by Stefan on the Mocality blog here. [...]
Appalling that such a big corporation can resort to such underhand and illegal tactics. Reeks of gutter tricks…
I owe my very first steps in online business to Mocality. You guys have designed a solution that is above all comprehensive and unique. What Google is trying is reprehensible.
[...] A Kenyan Startup • Posted by matt the rat • 13 January, 2012 • (0) Comment Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business [...]
[...] this post by Stefan Medalinski the CEO of Mocality, what they are practicing is plain scraping and bait and [...]
I am a fan of Google. This is completely unacceptable and ‘evil’ from Google. If Google is indeed at fault it should do three things
1. Make good any loss to you up until now
2. Give you guys free ad space for sometime
3. Launch investigation across the world for any similar practices across the world
I hope Google comes out clearly on this, like they did recently for the chrome issue
stunningly unethical and criminal
[...] slogan er “Don’t be evil”, men i en blogpost fra det kenyanske firma Mocality beskriver de, hvordan de fik mærkelige henvendelser fra deres kunder. De er en slags kenyansk [...]
If you search online for the IP address that WHOIS says belongs to Google, you’ll find evidence that the IP is used in India (same place as the call center). The WHOIS record lists Mountain View, CA only because that’s where Google’s headquarters are. Previous activity from that IP includes reviewing and suspending blogs on Blogger that are thought to be nothing but spam.
Clearly there is bad behavior going on here but it could easily only involve staff at Google Africa and GKBO. It wouldn’t even have to be many people at Google Africa, just someone in a position to requisition of the services of the Google operation in India to do the scraping and calling. The people in India probably don’t know anything about the fraudulence of what they’re tasked to do.
Guys, this is just a cyber espionage thingy, the only issue is that the guys who were doing it, dint know how to do it, and that’s why it was easy to catch them. This happens everywhere especially in Middle East, Europe and America. This was just an amateur attack.
Hire a US law firm immediately. I’m not a fan of lawsuits, but in this case it is clearly required to set a precedent.
This well recorded effort to steal and deceive is worth millions. Google has stolen your database, lied about a partnership, and also lied about your business tactics to all of your customers. Your business and customers deserve better.
Well done on the detective work.
@stefan: Has anyone from Google contacted you yet? or are you waiting on them to release a statement like the rest of us?
Very good. So now, almighty Google now turned EVIL!!! SHAME on Google. Google never listen to complaints and never respond to COMMENTS because they are always busy SCRAPPING and SCAMMING other sites.
Google, wake up. You need to react to this as a matter of urgency to save your brand.
As i started reading I also assumed, rogue employee or GKBO partner company or something BUT it seems it was deliberate.
Is mocality considering retaining legal counsel (lawyers are alsways bad for biz though) to take some form of LEGAL recourse?
It sucks that your business, like so many worldwide has to depend on Google for advertising revenue…. BUT we have all see cases where two partners fight over a specific issue and still collaborate on others, ala Apple vrs Samsung, so if they really mean to make amends you can take legal action and still use AdSense without any issues.
On the other hand, as a positive, your biz is SO GOOD, Google wants to rip you off. You beat the worldwide info aggregator in the hottest segement of the market, LOCAL SEARCH… Waiting for their response….
How is this even possible? Gosh, How can google authorise the mining and reselling ( by ‘hook and crook’) their services and KBO in particular to Mocality users?
Again, even pretending to be in partnership with Mocality is wrong!
Where is the media so that google can respond to this?
I want to see how this develops so that we are assured that local content apps like mocality will be respected and terms of use too
Would be good to get an official response from google kenya and google ca
I hate that they changed their strategy instead of stopping when they were caught and I love that you kept on going when you seemed to hit a brick wall in your investigation.
you basically have a corrupt leader in JM in Kenya
[...] Post by Stefan Magdalinski Via mocality [...]
[...] Google, what were you thinking? [...]
I’m more apt to believe that someone registered their IP Gateway with false address and company info (as is very common nowadays) by using Google’s publicly available information than I am to believe that a massive corporation like Google, who already rules the search market, would go after, no offense, small potatoes in a developing nation. Seriously, what do they have to gain?
If this is true, shame on them. If not, those are some clever spammers/phishers and hopefully they get caught.
Let’s not all drop the “innocent until proven guilty” principle just because of what it appears to be, regardless of how bad.
Just my two cents.
Buddy, care to explain the logic of scammers hawking a Google product? How would they benefit?
Easy, they dupe the person on the other end into giving financial information because they think they are giving it to a reputable company, and then identity theft is complete. I get spam all the time that is supposedly from Rolex selling me genuine Rolex watches. I somehow doubt that Rolex is in the business of spamming to boost sales.
Wouldn’t benefit anyone, but that’s the point. Smearing Google might be the objective here.
I strongly doubt that google is behind these things. It could be that these guys were using some techniques to cover their identity… Google would _never_ do this
Yes they were!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57359021-93/apology-to-kenyan-firm-ends-googles-week-from-hell/
OMG!!!!! We received a call on the office line (the one listed on Mocality) from India stating that they were offering website services. I think the guy on phone was Deepak or something (it sounded almost like a scam) the guy said he was from Google Kenya blah blah, we refused the offer as we already have a site. Then few days ago I was just searching our page when I stumbled upon our site on .kbo.co.ke site…I mailed them n told them to take it down! aaaaaaaarg!!!!!!
May be this matter can be settled in a civil suit or through alternative dispute resolution. Let our courts show who is guilty and who is not.
Anyway if Google caused Mocality any damage, and it is really tthem, then that is not a smart move.
You have done an absolutely outstanding job in analysing your server data, setting up a sting and uncovering the deceptive operation undertaken against you and the businesses on your site.
I am very interested to see what Google has to say about this.
I’m really not surprised as this stinks of something a particular relatively new Google employee would have cooked up to try to justify their relatively new senior posting. Having worked with this individual (elsewhere – prior to their joining Google), I learnt just how evil-to-the-core they are despite the image they publicly portray. I just knew that this evil would continue wherever they went… seems they’re dragging a global icon into their dubious “win-at-all-costs” (lack of) business etiquette.
Read Olga Arara……..
Add Paul Kukubo to the mix….
I said it, Olga was involved in the scam, trying to make money any way she can. Forgot others interests. Next should be head of Kenya ICT Board. They were in cohorts.
Google should really be ashamed of themselves. And this also shows that even Google is not infallibly smart, because they got caught!
[...] Source: Google What Were You Thinking [...]
Find this quite amazing though very believalble. I was waiting for you to clarify that it was someone claiming to be from Google – but there the page logs are.. Well caught!
some how I’m not really surprised. Google has a bad reputation the world over and they have landed in Africa with a bang. They believe Africans are dumb and can easily be take advantage of.
Shame on you big G
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
Google Kenya’s work on skimming off Mocality is just pathetic on all 76 levels of patheticness! Ushering in a “new level” in Kenya’s Tech foray.. “vulture capitalism”. They say the same thing about Vultures as they do about Fire.. Fight like with like.
[...] Google, what were you thinking?(Thanks, Stef!) [...]
Oh wow. Thanks for this investigation, and good look to you.
I think I received a similar call and someone from google kenya costed me a lot. Mocality kindly take some action
Worthy of RTing and crowdsourcing angry mob duties. /picks up pitchfork.
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
Honestly, i do not see anything here that links Google to your woes.
Take it up with them and settle it once and for all.
[...] Kenyan startup Mocality conducted a relatively elaborate sting to catch Google scraping results from its database of local businesses. Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski wrote up the full results on its blog. [...]
Hard to believe. Without the clear transition to their Indian call center I’d have likely believed it was either a rouge local leader or someone impersonating GOOGLE credentials. With that transition, however, this looks pretty damming. IANAL, but would wager this is illegal for a US company under US laws.
MIH does the same thing on a small scale! Am not saying Google is right but this is the bare knuckles kind of business of the day. If you put your website up, expect every ruthless thing to happen to it. If you beleive its out of this world and illegal, you go to court! Is Mocality gone to court…? Aks yourself;;
Google!!!!! Ahem! You need to be laid! Be responsible… Great piece Stefan Magdalinski…Jicho pevu pap!
Are you using a free Google API to push the business on the map?
Maybe you should change the provider and switch to bing or Nokia maps.
Henning
By the way I have registered my business with Mocality and I got that call from a strange number.
“If google wanted this information why didn’t they just ask?”
Honestly, had they asked would you just give them? They hacked into your d-base and now sniffed all your data and started contacting your clients?
When you realized this you didn’t handle it well and so they transfered their dirty work beyond your area of jurisdiction….how will you sue someone in India?
Firstly, if mocality was in a place with stringent privacy laws, you would have lost a lot of clients or would be nursing law suits cuz think of it, if google was the worst guy, they would have done worse with the data they stole.
So mocality, please protect your data with good firewalls and please have a 24/7 qualified IT stuff to monitor your servers and spare us your whining.
hi Josembi,
I think you might need to read Stefan’s article again. The database wasn’t hacked at all. Telemarketers where simply visiting Mocality and contacting the businesses that are listed on the web directory, that’s all. You could do the same to any online business directory.
The difference here is that many Kenyan businesses are new to the Internet and might be easy prey. If this was happening in a country saturated with online directories the scam would fall over in a day. This problem does not affect businesses listings or detract from the service Mocality offers. It just means that if someone from Google calls your business … hang up! It’s really that simple!
I hope this answer gives you a bit more confidence in Mocality. By the way, I’m in Australia and I’m not associated with Mocality or Google. I do have friends from Kenya (Hi Mwende and Carol), and I think Africa is the most awesome place on Earth!
Cheers,
Paul
Paul,
It could have been a lesser evil if they stopped at getting the details from the directory. But they went ahead to lie about their relationship with Mocality.
JOSEMBI, quite the comment! Very funny.. (in a lame way).
Shame shame shame…. Actually “DON’T BE EVIL” means define where evil is and stop just short of being it…. :O
Geez, I mean Google has to pick on the little fish when they could have easily automated or had the Google Army create a business directory? It seems like Google has no shame anymore!
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
Incredible how misinformed and technologically absurd the comment posters here are.
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
Do no evil Google. Shame shame shame. Now we need to hear from them.
It just doesn’t add up as to why Google would try such stunts knowing the repercussions of such actions if someone finds out and it goes public. A possible explanation to this is a bunch of script kiddies who thought that they’d be able to use Google’s GKBO service to try and make some quick shillings by calling up business owners whom they got their contacts from Mocality. Think of it as using tumblr to create blogs for businesses by targeting business owners who probably don’t know that creating a tumblr account is free.
You’d ask what I’m I driving at? The second IP that showed a user agent from Google’s servers was crawling mocality could have just been a bunch of script kiddies trying to act smart by spoofing the IP address to look like it was coming from Google’s servers. It could be as easy as using google translate as a proxy. Google ‘spoof google bot’ and you’d get a ton of places to start.
On the other hand, if all this is true and it was due to an overambitious Google Kenya employee, then Mocality are onto something here. But its surprising to hear people say that they are surprised that Google is not holding to their “Don’t be evil” mantra. All you need to do is check out the “Criticism of google” page on wikipedia and do some research based on what’s listed there.
Waiting to see how all this unfolds.
KIBET,
Google has already apologized to Mocality. Doesn’t this mean they are guilty?
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
My pals and i were talking of how google was killing small online business in Kenya and now this. I didn’t know they were this desperate.
[...] Here is the story of representatives of Google systematically lying about their relationship with another company (whose public directory they were using to get contacts) in order to get business. Stefan Magdalinski (who I have met a couple of times) has amassed a conclusive portfolio of evidence, including taped phone conversations, of a persistent campaign of such lies. [...]
[...] Mocality (via Robin Wauters): 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. [...]
[...] "CRITEO-300×250", 300, 250); 1 meneos Google, ¿en qué estabas pensando? [EN] blog.mocality.co.ke/2012/01/13/google-what-were-you-think… por Pecinejo hace [...]
Well i guess that’s only a small market, we can always close the kenyan office and go on to uganda or tanzania or whatever country
I smell a huge rat and it’s not wearing a Google badge. I think we need to be careful what is said in these early days. Finger pointing without thorough investigation is useless.
Anything is possible with IP spoofing, malware and other malicious attacks. A small insignificant file could be sitting undetected on a server, posting requests to another server. The originating request will look as though it was made from the host. If you are going to impersonate Google you had better make sure you do a good job. It looks as though these thieves almost succeeded.
Watching the amount of traffic to and from Google’s servers would make your head pop. Finding unusual requests would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
One thing for sure. If any payments were made by an unsuspecting business there will be a money trail that leads right to the front door of those responsible. One good thing that has come from this is Mocality’s solid stance in support of their stakeholders, peers and customers. What a great organisation and business model.
Whatever the outcome for the bad guys, I can assure you this will only bolster Mocality’s position as an outstanding organisation. If my business was in Kenya I would be signing up with them first thing in the morning!
I wish you all the best in this trying time Stefan!
Best regards,
Paul
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
74.125.63.33 = Hyderabad in India. Google? Yeah right. You’ve just been scammed. You’re in Kenya…
[...] the morning. But today, it did. Stefan Magdalinski called me around 10am and asked me to check the Mocality blog. He’s the GM, E-Commerce, Sub-Saharan Africa for MIH (it’s parent company also owns [...]
This is very bad. Google strategy in Africa has been far from innovative.
pole sana…but good job exposing them do not stop….expose them…to the core…put this information everywehere and go to the media… we will boycott their products if necessary…
[...] 13th – unlucky for some? I read a great article today, written on the Mocality blog about some possibly very underhand behaviour on behalf of Google in [...]
Read . Shared.
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
[...] o blog de uma empresa queniana chamada Mocality que criou uma base de dados de empresas do país e que usa um sistema de crowsourcing para [...]
SHAME on GOOGLE. But most importantly on KICT Board..
Is this the way to get hits onto your initiatives. At least be more creative & spend some of the money from donors in a more constructive way. This is corruption. How it works.
1. Donors give money for some project
2. Crocks (someone(s) high up at K-ICT Board & someone(s) high up at Google), set up a BPO.
3. Funds go to employ staff & resources.
4. Conned Kenyans, sign up to service, list like crazy.
5. Stats show all is going well.
6. Donors told dummy project doing well. Invoiced at inflated rates & requested for more funds as business is doing well.
7. Money pocketed.
8. Years (maybe months) down project fails & cancelled as there is no fall back plan
Why can’t those tasked with public services provide those services without getting kickbacks & self interest?
Mocality take this fight to the END!!!!
I said it, Olga was involved in the scam, trying to make money any way she can. Forgot others interests. Next should be head of Kenya ICT Board. They were in cohorts…
Horrible, horrible, shameful. As an Indian I am really ashamed this was also outsourced to my country. Hope Google has stopped this stinking practice with you now.
[...] o blog de uma empresa queniana chamada Mocality que criou uma base de dados de empresas do país e que usa um sistema de crowsourcing para [...]
[...] Google, what were you thinking? ← Mocality Kenya. TwitterDiggFacebookDeliciousStumbleUpon [...]
[...] Kenyan startup Mocality conducted a relatively elaborate sting to catch Google scraping results from its database of local businesses. Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski wrote up the full results on its blog. [...]
Its ugly how the IT is being abused in the world to an extent where you are scared to open up for any unknown mail. Its the world developing its good and bad, where good is breeding bad things breed too, make a bullet and bullet proof to counter such thefts of innovation. The teams in the big organisation run out of ideas and copy other versions before you know it the CEO is in court just because of employees who want to score marks. Lets all try to be innovative but not steal to get support on the ideas which aint yours.
Lastly lets all beware of who you share info with.
Not sure what kind of laws you have in Kenya, but it sounds to me like you could take them to court and sue for all kinds of damages!
I await a reply from Mountain view. This can be put right. I expect it will be.
I have always asked where is the fairness. Google puts google trader on top of search results while mocality have to buy google ads to be visible.
If this happened in the west google would be investigated for abuse of market position, but this is Africa where corporations get away with bullying.
[...] thе remarkable claim mаԁе bу Stefan Magdalinski οf startup [...]
[...] and finding out what was going on and even includes a transcript of the fraudulent calls on its blog. Apparently, someone identifying themselves as Google Kenya is trying to sell web sites to [...]
This is a major lawsuit waiting to happen. On behalf of Kenya and the rest of the world, make it so, mocality.
Be careful everyone, jumping to conclusions and vilifying big G without the full investigation might make you look very stupid later. As has been mentioned above, spoofing and other techniques could be responsible. A lot of people have been posting “but why would the culprits be pushing a Google product then? What profit for them?” and the answer is pretty obvious: they weren’t out to directly profit but probably rather to smear Google and take them down a few pegs. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Google fanboi (completely… I do prefer them to most other alternatives however, in the interest of full disclosure) and I am not completely discounting that is MIGHT actually originate from within the Google empire, but… Google isn’t just Larry and Sergei anymore. Saying “Google is evil after all!” is taking a broad brush to a bunch of good people, the “few bad apples” metaphor. It is very possible that there were a few evil Google employees (or even contractors… even if you take that route, if they were working via Google, then they ARE Google) but I still wouldn’t base my overall opinion of their entire company on one single (admittedly really really horrid) incident. Any more than I wold no longer buy a Microsoft product after they foisted Windows ME onto the public (“Microsoft, what were YOU thinking!”).
Take it all in context, Google overall is not evil, it *looks* as if some Google employees might have been, maybe, if it doesn’t turn out to be a spoofing situation. All in all, Google has a black eye.
And in the interest of fair play, for those conspiracy theorists: Has anyone considered the possibility (I personally doubt it, but…) that MAYBE Mocality could possibly have falsely generated these “logs” and this whole thing is a play to generate sympathy and positive vibes for their product? Or maybe cash in on a huge (HUUUUGE) payout from big G? Yeah, not bloody likely, but still… it IS a possibility.
I too am looking forward to seeing how this all plays out!
[...] at Google has some explaining to [...]
Just like they paid to have their chrome ap on websites, they will send their so called supporters here to villify mocality.
Mocality, you are doing Kenya proud (even though you are south african..lol). this Google menace has to be tamed and I hope that you sue them for everything they’ve got.
I have a few of my friends who were called by this beast and we all thought it was a scam. Turns out that Big G (remember that chewing gum), is made of gum…stretching the truth all the way. My goodness, Big G even scaps content? I thought they banned some SEO companies for that.
Let the West understand that Kenyans are not to be taken lightly with apps. We aren’t easily conned either. After living with Kenyan politicians, anything that Google says after this should be and will be taken with a pinch of salt by all Kenyans.
Let them take their Big G somewhere else, we shall use Mocality for our searches.
[...] Google, what were you thinking? I moved to Africa from the UK 30 months ago to be CEO of Mocality. When I moved, Kenya’s reputation as a corrupt place to do business made me nervous. I’ve been very happily surprised- until this point, I’ve not done business with any company here that was not completely honestly conducted. It is important for global businesses to adapt to local cultural practice, but ethics are an invariant. As a admirer of Google’s usually bold ethical stance around the world, to find those principles are not applied in Kenya is simply… saddening. [...]
[...] Google, what were you thinking? I moved to Africa from the UK 30 months ago to be CEO of Mocality. When I moved, Kenya’s reputation as a corrupt place to do business made me nervous. I’ve been very happily surprised- until this point, I’ve not done business with any company here that was not completely honestly conducted. It is important for global businesses to adapt to local cultural practice, but ethics are an invariant. As a admirer of Google’s usually bold ethical stance around the world, to find those principles are not applied in Kenya is simply… saddening. [...]
It’s beyond distasteful to see a large conglomerate abusing it’s power against this sort of company. Keep plugging away guys, this won’t go down quietly.
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
Oh and also, I forgot to mention… There a number of scams originating from India, where someone cold-calls and claims to be from Microsoft, and is selling By stating repeatedly that they represent “Microsoft” or “Google” in this case, it gives an impression of legitimacy. This is an old old old confidence trick.
I am stunned…
From the language used by this supposed google employee I highly doubt this is sanctioned by google. He sounds like a quark or inexperienced and it doesn’t sound like something google may want to expose themselves to legally. Am thinking its a hosting company that’s trying to get as many people as possible on their servers and using the free publicity of google and morality to get ahead.
Let’s wait for googles response.
I’m 99% sure that Google whether they’re guilty or not will still get away with this swiftly.
Sadly, this is true. Like the advertising scandal earlier, Google can just claim that it was someone they outsourced that was actually “Doing Evil.”
[...] in Business,ENTmoney News,Social Media,Technology Google has been facing a wind fall of bad PR and it seem like its not going to get better any time soon. Mocality, is a start up company in kenya which operates the country’s largest online business directory, and according to Mocality Google knowingly engaged in fraudulent behavior. Mocality believes that Google undermined their business to grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation revealed some damaging results for Google. Check out the full report from Mocality by Clicking Here [...]
Mocality, are you actually brain damaged or do you just like pretending to be so you get media attention? This is quite obviously a phishing scam being done by a group that is using Mocality’s directory to find their targets. Mocality should be on the hook for these slanderous accusations, and should definitely check their facts better before doing a press release that illustrates their lack of comprehension of a very simple concept.
Morons!
Er, except that Google have now admitted it, of course…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/13/google-kenyan-rival-mocality-database?newsfeed=true
@Bill ..you need Dr Phil I think you might have some issues from the past you haven’t dealt with .. Maybe you and an uncle share a secret??
Please sue them. This big brother syndrome should end
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
OK. This is slightly more than a little weird! It is more than a little evil. it is more than a little overboard.
I think it is IP theft. It is plain and simple.
Where data is concerned, IMHO, Google is full of crap, but then again, glad that they showed us we are not crazy to think so.
Stefan: time for you to secure your data…and find a way to make this sort of activity actionable and troublesome for someone who tries…
and all those who think someone is impersonating thoogle (thug, thoog, google …same difference), they would do it to self-promote…all the callers are promoting GKBO… the thoogle project.
Sue Google. Now.
As an online entrepreneur and among the people who contributed (and benefited) to the realization of Mocality’s database, I am UTTERLY DISGUSTED by GOOGLE! This is not an issue to be swept under the carpet. @Stefan, I know its a tall order to ask for an OCCUPY GOOGLE movement, but there must be a way to petition Google to come out clean on this issue! There is an article on Techcrunch on this whole issue we can post our comments there sure Google will get them. You can also start a petition site and we shall sure gather numbers. SHAME ON GOOGLE!
[...] Stefan Magdalinski, writing for Mocality: [...]
[...] 21st. When we listened to the calls, we were beyond astonished.”You can Read the Full post HEREAccording to Mocality CEO Stefan Google should have asked them for the information instead of [...]
If you use google translate the request will come from a google IP.
People in the comments have clearly no idea what they’re talking about.
Hmmm, So why, pray tell, did you not contact Google directly and get it sorted out? Why publicise it in this manner and without getting their input first? It could and probably is one rogue employee. My personal opinion is that you couldn’t resist the (cheap) publicity you’d get with this stunt. Not a very sustainable way to build a (currently loss-making) business IMO.
Google —> “Don’t be Evil” #fail
I am stunned, this is a real SHAME on Google part
So now if the SOPA was in effect Mocality could shut Google down for infringing on their copyright data.
Well its good you caught them !! The human hoeny Pot worked.. Now GooG Africa needs to explain themselves.
[...] the remarkable claim made by Stefan Magdalinski of startup [...]
Wow, kenyans are really brainwashed to hate Google. I bet kenyans love Microsoft too much. I’m still waiting for an official statement from Mountain View about this. If there’s an evil company nobody could knocked-off Microsoft from the throne.
Have you contacted Google and asked them for an explanation? I don’t see that here.
blar blar blar. Google will always win, get used to it.
This is trademark infringement, and is exactly the kind of thing trademark law is there to prevent. You should be thinking about lawsuits because that is the only thing that will get their attention.
[...] a blog post published today by Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski, he laid out a series of unethical business [...]
So… has anyone asked Google about this yet?
From a cursory analysis, I would say that someone in India is proxying through hxxp://www.google.com/adpreview I *think* the source IPs for this service are all on 74.125.63.0/24 but I’d have to setup an account with Google to check.
There are several tricks for proxying through Google. For example:
hxxp://translate.google.com/translate?tl=sw&js=n&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatismyip.com%2F&act=url
… will tell you that you’re connecting from 74.125.26.81 (or similar) So anyone who does a whois on this IP which appears in their web logs will see:
NetRange: 74.125.0.0 – 74.125.255.255
CIDR: 74.125.0.0/16
OriginAS:
NetName: GOOGLE
NetHandle: NET-74-125-0-0-1
Parent: NET-74-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
RegDate: 2007-03-13
…
There a number of scams originating from India, where someone cold-calls and claims to be from Microsoft, and is selling questionable PC maintenance services.
By stating repeatedly that they represent “Microsoft” or “Google” in this case, it gives an impression of legitimacy. This is an old old old confidence trick.
[Note to moderator: I'm reposting this comment]
You know what I think? The real culprit is Apple. All the other companies that the rogue callers seemed to have called from are major competitors to Apple, and their method over the past decade has been smear/belittling campaigns against the competitors.
I too wonder why you did not contact Google and ask what was going on, instead of wasting all this effort and making what honestly sounds like propaganda to put Google in a bad light.
You know what the company does, and what their policies are. When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. It is unlikely that Google is having a massive undercover operation just to screw with your site in Kenya. This is not a proper investigation. This is unfounded conjecture.
Google does screw up sometimes. But its response is more similar to what happened to the Chrome team with the not-entirely-squeaky-clean ads (they penalized themselves quite harshly in the search results). It is definitely not a cloak-and-dagger business that this post tries, poorly, to paint it as.
Full disclosure: I started an internship with Google a couple of weeks ago. My questions to you are valid regardless, I’d like to think
Going to change your tune now that Google has admitted this?
Yeah……You being an intern doesn’t give make you a god to know all the wrong doings that is going on. Now that Google has admitted what is going on, clearly the transition from “Do No Evil” to “Do Evil” is complete.
Even though late Steve Job’s apple has turned a blind eye to evil practices in China I will take my hats off to this comment. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s bullshit.” So interns be a critical thinker. Only such an intern will be good for Google. As Fmr Defence Secretary Rumsfeld put it “There are known knowns. There are known unknowns. There are unknown unknowns”. So this one falls into either of the latter two classes!
I like how unconsciously anti-African your analogy is: since this happened in Kenya there is in fact a solid chance that hoofbeats are zebras…
Well done on so many levels. Proud of you. X
[...] decided it would use Mocality’s comprehensive database to try and boost its new service — as noted in a company blog post entitled “Google, what were you [...]
I am impressed by forensic investigation.With all the facts.
lets wait and see what google says about this
[...] Google, what were you thinking? ? Mocality Kenya 202 comments so far. Google, what were you thinking? by Stefan. I'm very proud of the business that we've created here at Mocality, but I'm especially proud of two things: Our crowdsourcin… [...]
I am shocked by all of you who are shocked by Google’s behavior. Wake Up.
Stefan, your well tempered explanation certainly helped the facts speak for themselves. A more inflammatory rant would have had less impact.
DOUGLAS…you’re the only person mentioned by name: terenteren!
Wow that is complete crap. Wow.
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
[...] reasonably stop trusting the company as a whole. To read the full story on Mocality Blog click here window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: "", xfbml: true}); [...]
This is not the first time i have heard something like this.
Well done on the investigation and good luck on a satisfactory response.
[...] um post especialmente detalhado que foi publicado hoje em seu blog, a Mocality escancara os pormenores de uma auditoria que parece [...]
Impressive investigation and great job bootstrapping your business from scratch!
Looking for some real answers now..
Stefan,love to see your in-depth analysis and professional reaction. Good luck
Looks like Google is just as upset about this as everybody else: https://plus.google.com/115264064268941645500/posts/WfALKwfmCGJ
Apparently Google in general does not agree with the actions of some of its employees.
[...] a blogpost on Friday, Mr Magdalinski laid out in technical detail what he described as “scalping” by [...]
[...] startup that has crowdsourced a directory of businesses from the ground up, has accused Google of scraping its information and faking a relationship with Mocality to sell Google [...]
[...] laid out its evidence against Google in a blog post today, accusing Google of scraping its local business listings, contacting local [...]
Stefan, best of luck in going up against Google and like-minded Internet gangsters. Google is using it’s position and “search engine” (sic) to undermine any business that attempts an honest and open service to clients. SHAME ON YOU GOOGLE!!!
http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/01/13/busted-google-gets-caught-scraping-kenyas-biggest-business-listings-database/
Googles’ statements at the bottom.
[...] it had a partnership with the publisher to sign them up. Mocality founder Stefan Magdalinski explains in a blog post that his company conducted a “sting” against Google and offers evidence of his claims [...]
[...] um post especialmente detalhado que foi publicado hoje em seu blog, a Mocality escancara os pormenores de uma auditoria que parece [...]
A whole lot of conclusion jumping in these comments. I’m no google-defender but I do know people who work there and I can assure you that while no company is perfect, their company motto certainly jibes with how they try to steer their employees. I think most telling will be how they handle the investigation and what internal repercussions occur.
One semi-official response I’ve seen:
https://plus.google.com/115264064268941645500/posts/WfALKwfmCGJ
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
I hope you do more than tell Google they hurt your feelings. They need to suffer a legal and moral setback in the public arena and be taught a lesson for such outrageous behavior, especially egregious due to their supposed motto of “Don’t be evil.” That motto is a load of horseshit, and a potentially very dangerous one to believe.
I hope that there is some really good explanation for this. Otherwise Google need to revise their motto quite a bit!
Thank you for the indepth information/proof on this subject. This is mortifying and sad.
What say you Google?
Google needs to come clean on this one. HOw about suing Google for stealing data and false claiming partnership?
[...] a blog post called, “Google, what were you thinking?“, Stefan Magdalinski claimed Getting Kenyan Business Online, a Google-backed initiative that [...]
[...] the “Google, what were you thinking?” blogpost, Stefan Magdalinski claimed Getting Kenyan Business Online, a Google-backed [...]
All they would find on me is repeated hits to the same pr0n site
so…
We need African startups in Africa, having distractions like this is very unfair. I hope they can come up with a very credible answer to this allegations. We are monitoring the situation on Google+. Here is the updated response of Google VP Neslon Mattos
Nelson Mattos – 6:27 PM – Public
“We were mortified to learn that a team of people working on a Google project improperly used Mocality’s data and misrepresented our relationship with Mocality to encourage customers to create new websites. We’ve already unreservedly apologised to Mocality. We’re still investigating exactly how this happened, and as soon as we have all the facts, we’ll be taking the appropriate action with the people involved.”
hm… Really Google? >;(
Shame on the big G
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startup Mocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google of knowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
[...] has a lot of explaining to do.Complete story from Mocality’s point of view can be found on their blog.Also an interesting reply by Google’s VP for Product and Engineering, Europe and Emerging [...]
It sounds like you are in a good position to sue google. google has 2 choices. 1. Google can buy you out and make you go away if it’s less then x millions or 2. Settle with you. Eitherway that’s how big corp work and you can’t loose either way since you can get money out of google.
I am getting a feeling that a google reseller who makes money with respect to the number of sites they create on gkbo must have pushed this as Google.com doesnt have any direct benefit when they can get the mocality pages in their search. does it matter where the content is found on Google KBO or on mocality ?
[...] if there’s an issue of Google’s scraping of the content, something made apparent in the conclusion of Mocality’s post: Since October, Google’s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality’s database [...]
herp derp, nobody cares
I am just a run of the mill normal guy with an interest in tech and live in the UK. I just came by this post on G+ via Gianna Trapanni and to say I am shocked is an understatement! This is evil practice indeed. Somebody, some place has a lot to answer too.
Good luck Mocality and Kenya
Fi, Fi, Fo, Fum! I smell, the fingerprints of scum!
[...] the remarkable claim made by Stefan Magdalinski of startup [...]
[...] You can find all the details in Mocality's blog post about their allegations. [...]
Wow. For me, the best topic this year for now.
This just in–
Google admits doing evil:
“Google Apologizes to Kenya Startup Over Dirty Business Tactics”
http://www.pcworld.com/article/248161/google_apologizes_to_kenya_startup_over_dirty_business_tactics.html
Very disappointing behaviour by google here, and your dealing with the analysis of the data is commendable.
We done on the forensics and calling Google out! Its nice to know there are smart people out there to keep Google as honest as they can!
As an Adwords certified partner, this makes me FURIOUS! You are their best customer in Kenya and this is how they treat you??
I shared this on my Google+ stream with Eric Schmidt.
Great stefan,Mocality for sure has been more than kazi kwa vijana and has certainly helped thousand of jobless kenyans earn a leaving.Its too annoying for google to came take the harvest after you do all the planting and farm care.We look forward to send emails via mocality and have our search results through you and erase google from our mind.i suspect some of the listing in google trade to be those of dealfish.MOCALITY changed my life.
How incredibly depressing that a company as large as Google has to try and swallow up a new and exciting venture in a country trying to participate fully on the world stage. Shame on you Google
this might just be a scam run by some indian scammers in collaboration with Kenyan people trying to rip off some money from local business. Or Google getting nasty with their business.
I don’t see mention of any reporting of this to Google’s corporate offices, or confronting the people responsible. It seems if this were a legitimate complaint, the complaint should have gone out to the offending party, not to a posting looking for sympathy from those not involved.
Have you attempted to contact Google? I doubt that Google Kenya was told to steal data from the home office, this is likely a case of satellite offices playing fast and loose with directives. If your goal here is to resolve the problem, you should report it to Google.
If you knew how Google operates in Kenya, you wouldn’t even bother with that. Naming and shaming them might work better.
[...] The calls started shortly after Google announced its plan in September to provide Kenyan small and medium-size businesses with freely hosted and designed websites, as well as a fee-based option to purchase their own domain, according to Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski, who published a detailed account of the claims on the company’s blog [...]
[...] The calls started shortly after Google announced its plan in September to provide Kenyan small and medium-size businesses with freely hosted and designed websites, as well as a fee-based option to purchase their own domain, according to Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski, who published a detailed account of the claims on the company’s blog [...]
just look at elimu.co.ke, then look at the gkbo initiative, and tell me whether the gkbo initiative is moral…
My final word on this is that I think Google is involved in the chain some how.
[...] CEO Stefan Magdalinski in a blog post on Friday accused Google of “telling untruths” and a “human-powered, [...]
My final word is that Google is probably involved in the chain here.
Something else just occurred to me if you host your apps on Google App Engine http://code.google.com/appengine/ Do your requests come from Google IPs, it would be interesting to test.
Sorry,
But I see no proof that it isn’t just a small 3rd party contractor using a IP address given by Google Kenya to make some money on the side doing some simple harvesting. Typical tactic of any dodgy salesman on commission from my experience. Easy to do using VPN for example.
You need to find out who is getting the monthly money? Is it to a Google bank account or perhaps someone else? Ask one of your customers?
Wouldn’t surprise me if Google Inc. knows nothing about it…
Have you even visited Google Kenya and ask to speak to the head manager?
Before you cry foul it is worth noting that Google’s DNS servers are used by various ISPs in India, including BSNL. It is also worth noting that scams involving people calling up and claiming to be “Google” are well known.
My question is this – what’s Google’s response? Have they been contacted? What’s their legal department’s response to these allegations?
‘We were mortified to learn that a team of people working on a Google project improperly used Mocality’s data and misrepresented our relationship with Mocality to encourage customers to create new websites. We’ve already unreservedly apologised to Mocality. We’re still investigating exactly how this happened, and as soon as we have all the facts, we’ll be taking the appropriate action with the people involved.’ – Google’s Nelson Mattos, Vice-President for Product and Engineering, Europe and Emerging Markets.
Seriously Google? Way to drag your name in the mud..
Whoops, guess next time you need to get out of that GOOGLE Chrome or at least mask the user-agent eh?
those Kenyans are catching up to us… we gotta get smarter than this if we want to compete..
[...] is true, it deserves to be a scandal. Mocality’s Stefan Magdalinski’s post is titled, Google, what were you thinking? Comments (0)Filed under: Information Ethics by — Rory Litwin @ 3:30 [...]
Great work Stefan!!!!!! Kudos to you and your team for the sting op. It’s a very sad thing to see a giant like Google involving itself in such Unfair, Unethical and illegal methods . But what remains to be seen is whether Google employyes in Kenya branch acted on their own or were they under orders from the guys back in head office. If so this is an eye opener for business similar to Mocality around the world to realize the depth of their partnerships with companies like Google and how this arrangements are being really interpreted. Once again great detective work Stefan .
Google, I am dissapoint.
Google.. I am disappoint.
[...] The calls started shortly after Google announced its plan in Sep to yield Kenyan tiny and medium-size businesses with openly hosted and designed websites, as good as a fee-based choice to squeeze their possess domain, according to Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski, who published a minute comment of a claims on a company’s blog [...]
I don’t see any reason for this except to put Google in bad light and so it could be anyone. It could even be apple for all we know
[...] à des milliers de personnes et nous avons construit le répertoire le plus complet du Kenya », explique ainsi la société. Google serait arrivé sur le marché avec des pratiques [...]
Google has now become the epitome of poor business practices and ethics.
Sad sad day.
[...] soliciting for business from business owners listed in that database. See full details in this blog post by Mocality’s CEO, Stef [...]
But Google is Open so it can’t be Bad!
This is pretty hard data to shake off. I particularly appreciate Matt Cutts response on Twitter so far. It was honest and I like that. This is not good..Not good at all. I am very disappointed in Google.
[...] Highlights from Mocality’s sting: [...]
I made a very small test which demonstrates sending requests from Google IPs by means of Google App Engine. This is just a demonstration that this is possible and I think it’s more likely then using the Google Query Cache.
Just point your browser at:
httprequesttest.appspot.com
e·vil/ˈēvəl/
Noun: Whatever Google doesn’t do.
Sometimes you need to look past the obvious and sometimes stupid answer, whois can be faked
[...] Friday, Mocality posted a blog entry detailing that Google has been using data on Mocality to find local business information and then calling those businesses to offer competing services. [...]
I received the Indian call myself and was wondering how the got me. This is a bad move from Google.
Couldnt stop going thru the complete blog. Curiously ended up submitting “mocality” on yahoo, bing and google search. Y and B’s search results were similar
[...] you’re turned off by Google pushing its own services or its constant mining of data (some of which may be on the evil side), there are any number of reasons you might not like Google and their ways. And, while the majority [...]
You are to be commended on your investigation and its write up. Surely without this depth, we couldn’t have got such a response as that from Nelson Mattos.
Thank you.
[...] problem came to light thanks to a blog post from Stefan Magdalinski, the Nairobi-based CEO of [...]
Wow. For shame Google, for shame.
[...] google mocality way Posted in Internet | January 13th, 2012 I must say I was shocked after reading Stefan’s blog post jana and made me think twice before I do anything stupid on the Internet. And as the [...]
Welcome to the internet.
Welcome to the internet.
If you think Google is being evil, try dealing with chinese hackers.
@Gubatron, That’s just lame thinking. Hackers, wherever they may be hacking from are just hackers, and that’s what they are expected to do. On the other hand, when you mention Google, you think of a very respectable company which is incapable of such illegal activity.
I think the international media should look into this and make sure Google owns up.
[...] 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted,” Magdalinski wrote in a blog post [...]
For all of you out there that think this CAN’T be Google, after all, they are the good guys.
READ.
Read the PDF file.
According to Google, this was “a team of people working on a Google project”.
(we usually call them employees)
Suck it up Google, admit you got caught.
I thought i raised this to mocality & you paid it cold shoulder!
[...] time to read this report by CEO of Mocality which we have published the summary below. When people praised Google for saving [...]
Don’t be evil! (we’re watching you…)
[...] decided it would use Mocality’s comprehensive database to try and boost its new service — as noted in a company blog post entitled “Google, what were you [...]
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/01/13/mortified-google-apologizes-to-kenyan-business/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2012/01/13/google-accused-of-being-evil-in-kenya/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/13/google-kenyan-rival-mocality-database?newsfeed=true
http://www.pcworld.com/article/248161/google_apologizes_to_kenya_startup_over_dirty_business_tactics.html
http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2012/01/google-mocality-kenya/
Viral!
Oh wow. I will not forget this soon.
Wow. Just wow.
I cannot believe Google is doing this. I’m sure they will stop it when the appropriate people find out about it, but how it’s gotten this far is simply amazing.
I would assume there would be some legal and financial liability here …
Congratulations on your work in uncovering this information. Kudos to you from Hawaii!
Wow Google, wow.
Though I have to say I find it very amusing that you claim your database is your business and you protect it, yet didn’t implement anything to prevent people from scraping it like this.
I sent the URL of this site to Google and asked them to comment…..If they do, har har, I’ll post it back here.
[...] nearly 30 percent of our database has apparently been contacted,” Magdalinski wrote in a blog post [...]
I seriously doubt that Google approves of these practices, and if they happen to actually be responsible for this, the headquarters certainly are not aware of it.
You are doing some serious accusations here. Why didn’t you contact Google to ask for some explanations before posting this post?
In case they’re not involved in this (eg. could be someone claiming to be Google when they’re actually not; Google headquarters checking your website when hearing about this story, …), you’d be the one doing evil by publicly accusing Google of illegal practices, thus hurting their image for no good reason.
Gathering evidence was a good idea, but make sure you use it right now. Drawing conclusions too fast is dangerous…
Good luck in solving your problem.
Have you been following the story at all??! Google’s VP Nelson Mattos already has admitted this: “We were mortified to learn that a team of people working on a Google project improperly used Mocality’s data and misrepresented our relationship with Mocality to encourage customers to create new Web sites”
[...] backs up his claim with a detailed forensic analysis of data traffic to his company’s website. Mocality gathered this data through what Magdalinski characterizes as a sting [...]
Finally the dots connect….Designed by: iridiumInteractive
[...] “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,” said Stefan Magdalinski, Mocality CEO, on the company website, which details the investigation. [...]
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted,” Magdalinski wrote in a blog post [...]
[...] nearly 30 percent of our database has apparently been contacted,” Magdalinski wrote in a blog post [...]
Mocality should publicly launch a lawsuit against Google… then settle behind the scenes for a high amount – a good way to finance your Kenya operations.
Did you try to get a response from Google?
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
It sounds like business as usual from Google. Their belief that all data will eventually be theirs and the skewed view of themselves as more like an independent nation rather than a company says it all. In silly speak, Google is today’s AOL. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile, simply stop using them. Their content has increasingly less value, burying ones specific search under a mound of their preferred results.
My suggestion is advertise their practises over and over again. Suing will bust you and leave you at best vulnerable. And hire a bunch of 12 year olds to make Google old hat.
[...] 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted,” Magdalinski wrote in a blog post [...]
[...] Friday, Mocality posted a blog entry detailing how Google has been using data on Mocality to find local business information, and then calling those businesses to offer competing services. [...]
Perhaps you should seek some legal counsel and with their advice maybe contact Google too? Sorry to hear that this happened, but it is likely just a subdivision in G that is either overlooking something or has gone “rouge”. I wouldn’t criticize the whole company off the bat based on this incident, but some wrongs probably do have to be righted here by them.
Wow I’m shocked. The saddest part is that Google admitted their scam.
Google scamming a Kenyan business… wtf!
[...] allegations were first made public in a blogpost on Friday by the chief executive of Mocality, Stefan Magdalinski, who accused Google of [...]
First off this is reprehensible and unacceptable on googles behalf;
I see 3 likely outcomes;
1) Google sacks the involved staff members
2) Google sacks the Mo division and starts anew
3) Apple buys Mocality and sues google (because it can)
B
Mocality should not cry foul either; they obtained their so called data from ‘The Yellow Pages’, obtaining locations, contacts, then calling the contacts just to confirm! so who is the real thief here?
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] Friday, Mocality posted a blog entry detailing how Google has been using data on Mocality to find local business information, and then calling those businesses to offer competing services. [...]
Sadly Google outsourced the work of recruiting and designing kbo websites to an unscrupulous Kenyan – Indian Company named IridiumInteractive…Naughty as hell
We would like to clarify that iridium Interactive is not involved in any of these scraping and calling operations.
Official Response of Iridium Interactive:
Dear Sir/ Madam,
In the context of the latest conversations regarding the Scraping & Calling operations done on Mocality’s databse by Google, Iridium Interactive officially & categorically denies any involvement in these operations. Any allegations/ rumors indicating our involvement are baseless, false and grossly misinterpreted.
Juliet Gateri
Business Manager
+254 722 561 070
[...] recently, Kenyan business listings association Mocality released evidence that Google seemed to have been “systematically accessing Mocalitys database and attempting [...]
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
OMG! I had tipped my bosses about this last yr.my friend received that call from stupid Google for devilish deal. Yesterday i was told the same by a friend whose business has been listed.An Indian called him over the issue.We r working hard pitting up biz on the net and someone wants to reap from where they never sawd!cantact me for any details .Ambassador MOC
[...] recently, Kenyan business listings company Mocality released evidence thаt Google appeared tο hаνе bееn “systematically accessing [...]
[...] recently, Kenyan business listings company Mocality released evidence that Google appeared to have been “systematically accessing Mocalitys database and attempting [...]
[...] “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,” said Stefan Magdalinski, Mocality CEO, on the company website, which details the investigation. [...]
Terrible! Is this the Google I normally use? I am pulling out my two google e-mail address immediately in protest. They fellows have failed in all senses to appease Africa’s large growing market in the best possible way apart from staeling local content… I am worried the same is happening to startups in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda where Google is hurriedly trying to entrench itself. We need to protest to Google, I feel for Mocality, because soon others will be harrased too by such evil actions of the likes of Google.
[...] Friday, Mocality posted a blog entry detailing how Google has been using data on Mocality to find local business information, and then calling those businesses to offer competing services. [...]
Why didn’t they genuinely partner with Mocality, an option mocality has made clear that they are open to.
Mocality’s business model appears to be win win, not only for its business partners but also for local people via crowd sourcing. The greedy corporate capitalist model on the other hand, desire it all and it seems absolutely sacrilegious, for the little man to enjoy even a crumb.
[...] recently, Kenyan business listings company Mocality released evidence that Google appeared to have been “systematically accessing Mocalitys database and attempting [...]
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] recently, Kenyan business listings company Mocality released evidence that Google appeared to have [...]
Never trusted this Google invasion. Now I know why!
[...] news came to light this morning after the CEO of the business directory company published “Google, What Were You Thinking?” a blog post detailing a months-long company investigation into strange traffic spikes on its [...]
Wow, what were they thinking?
[...] recently, Kenyan business listings company Mocality released evidence that Google appeared to have been “systematically accessing Mocality�s database and [...]
LOL at all the denialists/apologists/Google-lovers still wailing about how it could not POSSIBLY be the beloved Google doing this. Long, long after links are posted to Google’s own clear admission that in fact it WAS them and they are so very sorry (they got caught.)
Bit late for that Google!
Mocality absolutely should sue Google to pieces. Google’s ‘apology’ is effectively just an admission of absolute guilt. It in no way provides any restitution for the real damages and crimes. This is worth $millions to Mocality.
I almost wish they were Nigerian. The irony would be complete.
Oh, one more thing. There’s more going on here than immoral and illegal business practices. This is very likely to be an element of the US government’s push to assert total military and economic dominance in Africa. Someone at AFRICOM very likely was involved in setting this up. The US government wants to run the place. In every way.
Google has no choice but to come out clean on this.Those guys must be shown the door,unless,of course it was official!
[...] CEO Stefan Magdalinski in a blog post on Friday accused Google of “telling untruths” and a “human-powered, systematic, months-long, [...]
From a web developer’s point of view…thatz an unfortunate thng…an unfair wastage of other pples effort!
[...] the evidence collected, Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski went public, making a blog post, Google, what were you thinking?, detailing the company’s findings, and asking the advertising giant three [...]
I absolutely admire Google amazing marketing / deceptive ( depends on your point of view ) tactic. They Are BRILLIANTLY executed!
The fact that people truly love, and believe the This don’t be evil mantra.
I am sorry and i love to quote: “It’s bullshit”
But you do work with google! You use all their services so therefore must in some way be working with them! I imagine thats how they might see it anyway!
Thanks for the article, a great warning to other small online businesses!
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
i dont understand the beef here….. if google tried getting information, well it had to use all means necessary …..
But telling lies to customers about other company and business relations to entice them to your business is illegal. That’s called scamming and fraud
I believe it is also punishable by jail.
[...] [...]
[...] a blog post this morning by CEO of Mocality Kenya, Stefan Magdaliski Mocality explained how Google Kenya staff [...]
[...] the evidence collected, Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski went public, making a blog post, Google, what were you thinking?, detailing the company’s findings, and asking the advertising giant three [...]
this is shocking…but how does the big G gain from such unfair biz practices this is just mind boggling
the big G needs to react and very fast at that!
if you have prove that this is actually the big G and no impostor..sue them
incredible story, kudos for the impressive technical detective work! i’m curious what measures google will take on this shady behaviour. keep up the good work!
[...] the evidence collected, Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski went public, making a blog post, Google, what were you thinking?, detailing the company’s findings, and asking the advertising giant three [...]
[...] Fragwürdige Methoden bei Google in Kenia Mocality Blog:Google, what were you thinking? var szu=encodeURIComponent(location.href); var [...]
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] datu nesankcionētā izmantošanā klientu biznesa pārņemšanā. Ļoti nteresants raksts – Google, what were you thinking? Kopš pagājušā gada oktobra fiksēts, ka laikam jau Google sistemātiski un nesankcionēti [...]
Apparently Google has already publicly acknowledged that people in the company were abusing Google’s systems to do this. They are “mortified” that it has happened, and I think you can expect the people responsible to be fired, imprisoned, or both.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/13/google-kenyan-rival-mocality-database?newsfeed=true
Can you please post a new blog update on the situation? No one sane is going to read this far down the comments section for information!
[...] fraudulently scraping its database as part of an effort to sell products to Mocality users. In a blog post published today by Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski, he laid out a series of unethical business [...]
[...] allegations were first made public in a blogpost on Friday by the chief executive of Mocality, Stefan Magdalinski, who accused Google of [...]
[...] recently, Kenyan business listings company Mocality released evidence that Google appeared to have been “systematically accessing Mocality�s database and [...]
[...] abused its access to information in Kenya by using the data it acquired from search to compete with Mocality, a local database company. Even Google itself was “mortified” and issued an apology, [...]
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] a local startup that’s trying to do something complementary. I’ve been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] been a strange week on the internet, Betties. Scandals and controversy seem to have eaten everyone’s brains, but there are still a valiant few who [...]
[...] on Google renaming the new feature Antitrust+. Of course, it does not help that at the same time Google is caught with their pants down ignoring their own “Do no Evil” motto. For a good sample of the reactions, take a look at MG [...]
Google responds to the Mocality blog post.: “We were mortified to learn that a team of people working on a Google project improperly used Mocality’s data and misrepresented our relationship with Mocality to encourage customers to create new websites. We’ve already unreservedly apologised to Mocality. We’re still investigating exactly how this happened, and as soon as we have all the facts, we’ll be taking the appropriate action with the people involved.”
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
[...] recently, Kenyan business listings company Mocality released evidence that Google appeared to have been “systematically accessing Mocality’s database and [...]
I would also know: What were you thinking Google?
I’m sure there are just some people responsible, but Google have to make the entire incident transparent, if they would not like to lose there “don’t be evil”-face furthermore.
This is part of competition just like safari-com and zain, you cant complain when the competition gets hard, you look forward on what next
Amazing investigation. Thank you for sharing!
Seems to me that this issue is one if the very real and logical problems that result from outsourcing to save a few dimes. One really loses control when they turn data and access over to others to manage.
[...] nearly 30 percent of our database has apparently been contacted,” Magdalinski wrote in a blog post [...]
[...] Google, what were you thinking? ← Mocality Kenya [...]
Excellent research and evidence collection! A couple of things stand out, to me.
25 calls per hour to businesses implies a fairly small telemarketing team, perhaps half a dozen people. Few enough to be easily run by a single manager, perhaps even as a small portion of a larger team.
The switch from using a team in Kenya to one in India means someone fairly familiar with the internal machinations of Google, but still limited in their scope and power. That switch may have been made in response to your actions, or simply a precaution again internal scrutiny.
On a tactical level, if you suspected something was going on enough for you to switch your ‘face’ team to another continent for non-routine reasons, you’d be smart to back off for a week or two, or at least try to be a little more subtle than simply changing IP address mid-day-peak. (and nothing else)
This sounds, to me, like some mid-level manager who’s desperate to skim a little more out of his monthly commission rate, while hiding his activities from the rest of the company. Someone’s lining their pockets at the expense of you, your customers, and Google.
Fortunately, activity at this scale (especially the writing and distribution of telemarketing scripts to the call centres) should be easily traceable within the company, and you follow the money back to the manager who benefited from the campaign.
Then – Google, if you’re listening – you fire his ass, explain and apologise to everyone involved, assist in the transfer of customers back to Mocality, and also give them a small wheelbarrow of money for their trouble.
Google does not benefit from behaviour like bait-and-switch tactics. They know this. At a corporate level they think long-term and truly believe that more Internet is better, no matter who builds it, because it inevitably creates more for them to index.
The behaviour you’ve exposed is purely short-term extractive thinking which is explicitly against their corporate motto – Don’t Be Evil – which they take seriously. I’m sure a lot of cynical and derisive laughter will greet that statement, but they do. It’s almost impossibly hard for a multinational company that affects millions of lives to _not_ occasionally screw up and hurt people. That they chase that impossible dream at all is to be commended.
This kind of underhanded behaviour to steal customers is pretty common. Law courts are full of such cases. It’s shocking this time because it came from Google, who hold themselves to a higher standard, and thus we do to.
Best of luck! I suspect it will all work out, now. And you’ve created an excellent model for how to go about this in future.
[...] Google, what were you thinking?, asks Kenyan startupMocality, which operates the country’s largest online business directory. Mocality is accusing Google ofknowingly engaging in fraudulent behavior to undermine their business and grow theirs, after careful monitoring of Internet traffic and a successful sting operation turned up some very interesting results. [...]
What an excellent write up! Fantasic stuff you guys are doing in Kenya. As a African and a Nigerian, I’m proud of you guys and all others doing such work bringing talent and services.. showing we too can be players on the global stage. Using IT and providing services to our homeland.
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
One more thing.. Google is a US based company. Have you looked into legal recourse against them in the US? You have have a fight you know. And lawyers would take your case for free. Look into it…
[...] recently, Kenyan commercial operation listings association Mocality released evidence which Google appeared to have been “systematically accessing Mocalitys database as well as [...]
[...] um post especialmente detalhado que foi publicado hoje em seu blog, a startup Mocality, que fornece um diretório de páginas [...]
Well done though you realized it late. We saw them live in action as we were doing our marketing in the field…. they did theirs on phone. I hope they too will not raid other local websites including our website for contacts. They have no idea what it takes to get such data. Shame on them for paying Kenyan graduates Kshs 10,000 a month. Shame shame on them the employees left one by one because they were working for transport alone.
I had a friend working there….they conducted their operations from westlands Nairobi. They were working in a team of 20 but the number dropped to 12 because of poor pay. I just wonder how a whole company like google could pay Kenyans peanuts yet they were making a fortune courtesy of Mocality. Had this continued longer most hosting companies would have lost business and possibly shut down.
On my facebook profile i complained of how we lost money to con men posing as their employees, we were shocked to be informed that our pay has just been collected. It was so painful. This google gkbo thing has created heven for con artists. No wonder some business men ask us for a photocopy of our national ids most likely they themselves have been conned off their money with offers of putting their businesses online. Shame on them again and again.
Google is starting to show its true face:
- Killing local startups
- Outsourcing local jobs to India
That is just plain Gordon Gekko style multinational corporation behaviour. Google, I’ll keep watching your business ethics closer from now on!
This is awe-inspiring. I will follow this blog forever!
[...] Google, what were you thinking? ← Mocality Kenya Our database IS our business, and we protect and tend it very carefully. We spot and block automated attacks, amongst other measures. We regularly contact our business owners, to help them keep their records up-to-date, and they are welcome to contact our call centre team for help whenever they need it. In September, Google launched Getting Kenyan Businesses Online (GKBO). Whilst we saw aspects of their program that were competitive, we welcomed the initiative, as Kenya still has enough growth in it that every new entrant helps the overall market. We are also confident enough in our product, our local team, and our deep local commitment that we believe we can hold our own against any competition, playing fair. [...]
[...] a local startup that’s trying to do something complementary. I’ve been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
Sounds similar to the way that mobile phone resellers contact you pretending to be the main dealer when really they are selling on the service for some commission. Maybe companies are deceptive. Maybe the issue is lack of checks on the people who Google chose to work with, rather than Google being the problem?
This is how google is killing all niche and verticals that have high value. With google places and shopping they are slapping hard working established businesses. I have a local business directory, it took lot’s of effort before it reached 250.000 unique visitors a month. Made me a steady income for 4 years. Beginning last year they added places listings into the searchresults so my site no longer ranks on top op the google searchresults page. Monthly visits dropped from 250.000 to 6000. What I think is a shame about this is that Google has stolen all their addresses in google places from hard working small businesses that worked hard for years to build good databases. They are just stealing and crushing small business owners!
[...] analyses des logs : d’après Stefan Magdalinski, un des responsables de Mocality qui s’explique dans un long article, Google aurait purement et simplement espionné la concurrence pour aller récupérer des [...]
I wondered how long you’d been waiting for your data to be “stolen”! It must have been a very SAD day for you to find out. Good luck.
A giant like Google is always an easy target for criticism. I personally didn’t have good experience doing business in Kenya – I was ripped off and had to fight all the time. So I found it interesting that Mocality was so prepared for this case. Seriously, a publicly available online directory sounds like a perfect trap. I’ll be curious to see how this case will turn out. Hard to tell who’s really the victim.
[...] “Do not evil”? Explain this one please. Hat Tip: MG Siegler. Google did something seriously uglynasty (my new word) to a small business in Kenya. [...]
[...] a local startup that’s trying to do something complementary. I’ve been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
Bring on the anti-trust trials I say, break the company up like they did with Microsoft.
The tip of the iceberg this is. How many other ‘non-monitored’ databases have also been used. I think a COMPLETE AUDIT of every customer database vs Googles would be an adequate punishment, they have the resources, and the money to do it, and need a hit in the pocket
[...] recently, Kenyan business listings company Mocality released evidence that Google appeared to have been “systematically accessing Mocalitys database and attempting [...]
I know of at least 2 other countries where Google is doing this, with a ruthless win at any cost. Not just win but destroy the lives of your competitors by stealing from them.
Thank you for a providing a template on how to come public.
Shame on Google.
Shame on Larry Page
Shame on Eric Schmidt
The fish rots from the head, and both Page and Schmidt were involved in the Canadian drug deal for which they paid $500 million to the US DOJ.
[...] Friday, Mocality posted a blog entry detailing how Google has been using data on Mocality to find local business information, and then calling those businesses to offer competing services. [...]
According to the Wall Street Journal, http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/01/13/mortified-google-apologizes-to-kenyan-business/ Google has apologized and is continuing to investigate.
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] to kenijska firma internetowa, prowadząca bazę lokalnych przedsiębiorstw. Jak na firmowym blogu opisuje jej CEO, Stefan Magdalinski, baza powstała dzięki wysiłkowi tysięcy osób, które [...]
[...] been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] services and claimed that the web firm was working closely with Mocality, which is not the case. In a blog post entitled “Google, what were you thinking?”, Mr Madgalinski says he initially thought [...]
[...] Read Mocality detective operation here [...]
[...] Facing Another PR Disaster: Google Accused Of Fraudulently Undermining A Kenyan Startup [...]
Please lets accept competition wisely, thanks to Google for creating websites to sme’s, by the Google egents go to smes and ask for information not from your database, and most sme’s prefer websites than being in a directory, Google transform lives into better living,.
mapigo you are right, many SMEs liked the google stuff
[...] yaptıkları bir açıklama dijital dünyada minik fırtınalar kopardı. Açıklamanın kendisine bu adresten ulaşabilirsiniz.Durumu teknik kısımlarına elimden geldiğince az değinerek açıklamaya [...]
[...] a local startup that’s trying to do something complementary. I’ve been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
Das ist wirklich schlecht.
[...] from Kenya, later moved to India. Only one company is involved at the moment, Kenyan start-up Mocality, but we should expect there to be many, many more that are either unaware or have not come forward [...]
After reading this post, i have mixed feelings:
1 – I empathize with Mocality. I am a small technology business owner too.
2 – Shame on Google representative for claiming to work in collaboration with Mocality. You have to build your business on trust…not lies.
But after consideration, the lesson here is: If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen! Unless information is somehow protected from the public, it is not a trade secret. Don’t complain cause someone is ‘stealing’ your customers. If it wasn’t Google, clearly it would have been someone else. Just a matter of time.
Case in Point: You’re seriously not offering your customers a website… in this day and age! #fail Why not try and make a better offer for YOUR customers! Think creatively…don’t come crying woe. This is business! Not personal! And Google is NOT a non-profit sent to save you! You could have worked magic and come out looking like a super star with a story of how YOU beat Google!!! Now, you’re just a kid in the playground crying to his mom cause the other kids are running faster than him. Pick up your feet and try harder!!!
I don’t see much wrong with what Google did.
Mocality is an open directory. There should be no restriction on what you can do with information obtained from them. If Mocality claims otherwise, I’d like to see them take responsibility when, or if, a burglar obtains a physical address of a business for purposes of breaking in and stealing.
The fact that Google used an automated website to harvest the information is no different than if someone physically retrieves addresses of 10 or 20 businesses from Mocality, and writes them down on a piece of paper, say for marketing purposes.
It’s not enough for Mocality to state that this goes against their terms of use (if they even claim that). Terms of use and copyright restrictions must be reasonable, especially when the information is publicly and freely available.
Terms of use may only apply to the extent that you shouldn’t provide a similar product. There are two products here: the directory service, and the web design/hosting service. Google was trawling Mocality’s directory to market and reach out to potential customers for their web hosting product, NOT to incorporate the information in their own, rival directory service.
It’s a fine distinction, but an important one. Google is a giant company and they provide hundreds of products and services — they shouldn’t be denied fair access to another company’s product or service simply because another of Google’s service is similar to the company’s
WHAT? They were lying to the customers. It wasn’t the harvesting of the information, it was the lying part, the falsely stating they were part of mocality, falsely claiming things to customers, contact customers, attempting to steal business from mocality by lying to them. Did you read the article?
[...] Google, what where you thinking? → Elsewhere google, mocality ← Play your world with Google Maps [...]
If you, as a company from Kenya, did such a thing in USA against an American company, they would sue you till they get your underwear! They convicted a crime and apology is just a confession. Find good lawyers and go for it! Make yourself rich and Google regret.
It is surprising that unethical practices like this can occur at all. What ever the case I hope that you find it was rouge agents and not something from the top of Google because I always thought Google was one of the good guys.
[...] Stefan’s Mocality blog – 7956 tweets and 455 [...]
[...] to kenijska firma internetowa, prowadząca bazę lokalnych przedsiębiorstw. Jak na firmowym blogu opisuje jej CEO, Stefan Magdalinski, baza powstała dzięki wysiłkowi tysięcy osób, które [...]
I am doing some research on science for my website . has anyone seen any independent analysis web sites on current “science in the news” articles and news stories? I keep seeing stories that seem to conflict with eachother. Each one claiming that their spin on the story is legitimate. It can take me hours of research
that may already be available someplace.
Any Ideas where to start?
Thanks!
[...] and claimed that a web organisation was operative closely with Mocality, that is not a case. In a blog post entitled “Google, what were we thinking?”, Mr Madgalinski says he primarily suspicion a [...]
This is totally unacceptable.
[...] Google klaut Daten von kenianischem Start Up. Um den Diebstahl zu stoppen, stellte das Start Up dem Unternehmen eine Falle. Google hat sich zwischenzeitlich entschuldigt. Der Vorgang werde derzeit untersucht, dann wolle man Maßnahmen gegen die Beteiligten ergreifen, so ein Google Sprecher. SPON, Mocality Blog [...]
A brief research of the GKBO project
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 12
- Google Kenya launches partnership with Safaricom/KENIC/Equity Bank to form kbo.co.ke (GKBO) offering a standard website to SMEs.
-One of the partners above is already involved in a competing product to get businesses online run by Iridium Interactive.
-Iridium share an office with Google Kenya and have another office in India.(7th Floor, Purshottam Place, Westlands,Nairobi)
-Sooner or later they must have come together.
-All GKBO websites are designed by Iridium Interactive BUT GKBO website is managed by Google Kenya
-GKBO charges about $20 (Ksh. 2,000) for each customized website hosting……Interestingly it was launched as FREE service website on kbo.co.ke .
-GKBO is targeting to get 50,000 business online … @ $20 thats $1 million dollars in the first year.
-Google has an annual turnover of 21.796 billion dollars
-So the connections: Mocality has 170,000 SME contacts, Calls come from ‘Google Kenya’, Websites are designed by Iridium
-Who stands to gain most from this? How is this money to be shared?Is there a website sales department at Google Kenya? If not is the service outsourced? To whom at what cost? Follow the money you will find your answers.
NB: Any allegations/ rumors indicating our involvement are baseless, false and grossly misinterpreted.
[...] kunder och hävdat falskeligen att man gjort det i samarbete med de företagen man scrapat: Läs mer här: (Tagna med handen i syltburken erkänner man det [...]
[...] kunder och hävdat falskeligen att man gjort det i samarbete med de företagen man scrapat: Läs mer här: (Tagna med handen i syltburken erkänner man det [...]
[...] a long blog post on Friday, Mocality’s CEO Stefan Magdalinski, who came to Kenya from the UK 18 months ago, explained [...]
[...] Has Google finally forgotten its "don't be evil" roots? A free Kenyan business directory called Mocality appear to have evidence of Google unethically tapping up their customers. Mocality, founded by Stefan Magdalinski, also behind Moo.com, claim that Google have been illicitly approaching their clients to win new business for their own pr…. [...]
As much as we would accuse Google Kenya for this,how sure are we that it is not a team of spammers/conmen/conwomen who took the advantage(of the ability of GKBO allowing business owners to create free websites ) and then started CHARGING business owners so that they may create websites on behalf of them.I think it may not necessarily have been GKBO Team that did this but some conmen/conwomen who wanted to use Google’s name to entice and con business owners.
Then why is Google [Global] quick to apologize. Think, reason and write like somebody who went to school!!!!!! Pumbavu mavi ya kuku…
[...] Man har 1. hämtat upp data ur en privat företagsdatabas (KBO) för att 2. försöka sälja konkurrerande tjänster till samma företag, och antingen 3. gett sken av att det skett i samarbete med databasägarna, eller 4. spridit ringaktande uppgifter dem. Företaget som drabbats skriver ett utförligt blogginlägg om det här: Google, what were you thinking?. [...]
[...] boss, Stefan Magdalinski, posted an update on his blog, where he first revealed that Google employees in both Kenya and India had acted [...]
Unbelievable!, coming for such a big company? That was cheap and low. Hence the title, “Google, what were you thinking?”
[...] startup Mocality, a local business directory that crowd sources its database of businesses, published a post accusing Google of ripping it off of its hard earned database of some 170,000 local businesses by [...]
[...] I’m watching keenly to see how this plays out in the media and most importantly the final outcome. It might just open another can of worms. Refer to this post for the breakdown of how it all started Google what were you thinking [...]
I am surprised. Google of all the companies!!!!
Am shocked beyond words!!!!
[...] Has Google finally forgotten its "don't be evil" roots? A free Kenyan business directory called Mocality appear to have evidence of Google unethically tapping up their customers. Mocality, founded by Stefan Magdalinski, also behind Moo.com, claim that Google have been illicitly approaching their clients to win new business for their own pr…. [...]
[...] Google, what were you thinking? – this is the reason i’m suspicious, to say the least, about anything having to do with google. to me, a company whose motto is “do no evil” deserves watching a bit more closely than other companies, and this is exactly the reason why. Posted by przxqgl on Monday, January 16, 2012, at 8:00 am. Filed under i am a terrorist. Tagged i am a terrorist. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. You can post a comment or trackback from your blog. [...]
[...] à des milliers de personnes et nous avons construit le répertoire le plus complet du Kenya », explique ainsi la société. Google serait arrivé sur le marché avec des pratiques [...]
[...] a local startup that’s trying to do something complementary. I’ve been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] matter first came to light in a blog post published on Friday by Stefan Magdalinski, chief executive of Mocality, who accused Google of [...]
[...] Google, what were you thinking? (Thanks, Stef!) Leave a comment: [...]
[...] Include: Mocality, Nelson Mattos Google+, [...]
Ironically reminded me of this.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12343597
I love it how you switched phone numbers on them, pure genius.
I also love how you’re handling the whole situation, keep it up man!.
It is high time we started thinking like Innovators and not just users!!! Let us think of our own Kenyan Search engine. Yes I am a developer, is doable……. OR just sit around and just shut up your mouth because complaining will not help.
Just a thought…. How can a reputable company with ‘Kenyan presence’, outsource such functions as mentioned to an Indian firm???!! This is crazy. We have lots of professionals in Kenya who can do a better job and professionally. Now look at what the Indian firm has done with little coordination from someones bedroom in India……
Molacity has spent KES 11M in the past few Months to come up with their database. Google just wants to reap where it has not sawn….. Unprofessional, Unacceptable, legally punishable. YES YES YES..
[...] a local startup that’s trying to do something complementary. I’ve been looking into the well-researched story that Mocality, a Kenya-based business listing service, published this morning. There are certainly [...]
[...] on about Google+ using facial recognition technology to find you in photos; or also this week, the Mocality scandal (a lesser publication would have called it “Mocality-gate”) where Google [...]
Someone finally caught the big dog. That is the best news ever. Hey Google, What happen to NO EVIL?
After you guy understand the meaning behind “Search plus Your World,” You will favor Bing search engine.
Please BING this: “GOOGLE HAS SOLD THEIR SOUL. THE PRICE? YOU!”
[...] days ago this post appeared on Kenyan company Mocality’s website accusing Google of not only scraping [...]
[...] A supposed rogue Google Kenya employee attempted to poach a Kenyan startup’s business: Google, what were you thinking? {Mocality Blog} [...]
Goog has been doing this for 10 years…in 50 countries… wake up world… Data theft…/ scraper & deceptive trade practice… Google are the Robber Barrons of the internet world in turn redistribute with google ads @ 34 billion!
i am stunned… you guys shd seriously consider legal action!!
really good for you to expose google for what they really are, and real smart gathering such evidence from ‘the kings of the web’ themselves…
[...] sought to host Kenyan businesses by creating free websites for them. In a lengthy post titled ‘Google what were you thinking’ on their blog, Mocality provided detailed evidence against which they backed their allegations [...]
Harvestowanie baz danych, zwłaszcza w branżach yellow pagest to niestety dość często spotykana praktyka.
W każdym razie gratuluję czujności i szybkiej reakcji
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
[...] per hour, since 7 calls over 3 hours, only 10% of calls redirected: 7*10/3= 23.3. calls/hour)," revealed [...]
[...] matter first came to light in a blog post published on Friday by Stefan Magdalinski, chief executive of Mocality, who accused Google of [...]
[...] week was bad news for Google as Mocality, a crowd-sourcing Kenyan company came forward in a blog post about how its data was being stolen, its relationship with Google being misrepresented, and its [...]
[...] IP-Adresse aus Indien, von der aus auch die kenianische Website Mocality vergangene Woche einen Datenmissbrauch durch Google beklagte. Google-Mitarbeiter kopierten Daten der Wirtschaftsbörse und boten sie kenianischen [...]
What Mocality and Dealfish have accomplished thus far is fantastic and I commend and congratulate you and your team Mr. Stefan Magdalinski. There are many reasons you could have chosen not to take on such a daunting task in a developing nation. I am so glad that you have attested to the honesty and hard work of many businesses in Kenya. I wish you all the best in your battle(s) with the culprits. Based on your reaction to the problem, you are definitely well equipped, prepared and capable to deal with this issue and any more that arise as you continue to grow; it is inevitable therefore do not tire.
[...] week we saw Google taking a big hit when it became clear that in Kenya Google had crawled a local directory and then cold called businesses in that database. The allegations seemed to be true because the [...]
[...] been in the news a lot lately for less than flattering reasons. Last week it was scraping data from a Kenyan business data startup, this week it appears to be vandalizing OpenStreetMap. The vandals have the same Google [...]
[...] which is an offshoot of a South African company, said in a blogpost that it had caught Google “systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting [...]
Number of firings at Google over this incident: 0
Presumption therefore is this is daily at Google business as usual worldwide. It’s rare to get caught, so each “bust” indicates 100 other incidents that are still undiscovered.
Apologies are meaningless only firings and damages (payments) count.
PS: in a globally-distributed business, there is no such thing as a “third party vendor”, anyone who performs core functions is YOURS.
Cyberbeach – Already have heard of some who have been fired. It is not important to publicize these though. Action is important, the company does not want to make a PR win by declaring that it has. Very stringent action is being taken. Which is a good thing.
[...] en el abuso de datos de dos start-ups #iMapasby admin on 17/01/2012 5109080982_1fb9a9a14a_bMocality, un nuevo buscador de negocios en Kenya y OpenStreetsMap denunciaron en menos de una semana en sus [...]
[...] Mocality, un nuevo buscador de negocios en Kenya y OpenStreetsMap denunciaron en menos de una semana en sus blogs oficiales un uso fraudulento, así como vandalismo de datos por parte de gente que dice representar al gigante del internet en Kenya, o bien, que usan cuentas asociadas con IPs de Google en India para editar erróneamente la información de OMS. [...]
[...] Mocality, un nuevo buscador de negocios en Kenya y OpenStreetsMap denunciaron en menos de una semana en sus blogs oficiales un uso fraudulento, así como vandalismo de datos por parte de gente que dice representar al gigante del internet en Kenya, o bien, que usan cuentas asociadas con IPs de Google en India para editar erróneamente la información de OMS. [...]
Interesting yes suprising..no. It’s only illegal or wrong when caught. Sad but true.
[...] cette société vient d’accuser Google de piller sa base de données en « scrapant » (copier/coller) les informations se trouvant sur son site. [...]
[...] Google, what were you thinking? Kenyan startup, Mocality use an online sting, and cunning detective work, to apparently find Google fraudulently stealing their customers. (via) [...]
[...] semana pasada Mocality, un emprendimiento Keniata de datos comerciales, atrapo a Google extrayendo sus datos y el artículo llego hasta boing boing. Mocality rastreo esto con algo de análisis de sus [...]
[...] Mocality, un nuevo buscador de negocios en Kenya y OpenStreetsMap denunciaron en menos de una semana en sus blogs oficiales un uso fraudulento, así como vandalismo de datos por parte de gente que dice representar al gigante del internet en Kenya, o bien, que usan cuentas asociadas con IPs de Google en India para editar erróneamente la información de OMS. [...]
[...] Mocality, un nuevo buscador de negocios en Kenya y OpenStreetsMap denunciaron en menos de una semana en sus blogs oficiales un uso fraudulento, así como vandalismo de datos por parte de gente que dice representar al gigante del internet en Kenya, o bien, que usan cuentas asociadas con IPs de Google en India para editar erróneamente la información de OMS. [...]
This is a very bad move from Google.
It’s time this issue is sorted out.
Hope Google does not change their algorithm to push your organic listing down, just because you exposed them!!!
[...] Google/Mocality controversy earlier in the week serves as a wake-up call for everyone involved in online business. Small [...]
Take legal action.
@Mike Gordon If so why Google apologized??
I would definitely take legal action
why?
1- because key questions haven’t been answered accordingly, via court they will be forced to provide an answer.
2- It will effectively help prevent Google from using this tactic in other countries and regions and certainly in Kenya. They will think twice.
3- This matter would have more exposure and will raise awareness in the rest of the world, helping/preventing startups of possible unethical business, which make use of similar tactics and/or are related to Google.
4- An apologize isn’t enough. There is business damage on the matter. And although money compensations leave a lot to desire, they are what current legal systems had established to repair damages.
[...] 2. Skandāls Kenijā ar datu vākšanu un tirgošanu. Vienkāršots raksts ir iekš boing-boing, un plašāka informācijas analīze ir uzņēmuma blogā. [...]
Google?!!!!!!!!!! Whyb a u destroying your integrity!!!
Google?!!!!!!!!!! Why a u destroying your integrity!!!
[...] service for SMEs that first launched in Britain in 2010 and is currently embroiled in a ‘scalping’ row in Kenya, was coming to Ghana, bringing the sub-Saharan Africa tally to Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and [...]
[...] this is an intentional Google strategy to prevent link/search farming, similar to what their “rogue shadow company” did to Mocality in Kenya? Is this practice known by others and/or publicized by Google themselves? I wonder if my [...]
[...] by people acting on Google’s behalf? There’s a nice tech detective story in the sting operation which Mocality conducted which uncovered the action. Google have admitted the story is true and apologised while they are [...]
[...] First, there was the small matter of leeching from a Kenyan business: [...]
sure enuff they called me more enuff times
[...] egg οn thе mighty Google’s face, tοο: Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski posted a long blog entry іn whісh hе ԁеѕсrіbеԁ a sting surgical [...]
I received the calls, and was wondering, why they are so persistent, yet i declined the first time they had called!…these third party contractors are tarnishing Google’s respectable name..they should be dealt with accordingly..Mocality, you Rock!
[...] Has Google finally forgotten its “don’t be evil” roots? A free Kenyan business directory called Mocality appear to have evidence of Google unethically tapping up their customers. Mocality, founded by Stefan Magdalinski, also behind Moo.com, claim that Google have been illicitly approaching their clients to win new business for their own pr…. [...]
[...] service for SMEs that first launched in Britain in 2010, and is currently embroiled in a ‘scalping’ row in Kenya, was coming to Ghana, bringing the sub-Saharan Africa tally to Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda [...]
[...] Magdalinski, CEO Mocality, teilte in einem Blogbeitrag mit, dass es Mitarbeitern des Branchenverzeichnisses aufgefallen sei, dass sich Google, ohne eine [...]
[...] Google/Mocality controversy earlier in the week serves as a wake-up call for everyone involved in online business. Small [...]
[...] in a Sting Operation in Kenya? Wow…this is pretty…um…transparent.According to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
[...] Mocality, un nuevo buscador de negocios en Kenya y OpenStreetsMap denunciaron en menos de una semana en sus blogs oficiales un uso fraudulento, así como vandalismo de datos por parte de gente que dice representar al gigante del internet en Kenya, o bien, que usan cuentas asociadas con IPs de Google en India para editar erróneamente la información de OMS. [...]
[...] Google – “Don’t be evil!” [...]
[...] business. I’ve been observing the fallout from Google’s recent moves in social and the Kenyan debacle, but rather than wax philosophical on Google’s ethics I’d like to talk about the [...]
[...] Interestingly, a different image sprung in my mind with the news a week or so ago about certain Google (third party contractors) poaching business from a Kenyan startup Mocality. I instead recalled a post I had read sometime [...]
[...] Kenya aurait piraté la base de données de Mocality, composées de 170000 adresses. Elles devraient être bientôt disponibles dans Google Adresses ? [...]
[...] another reason to dislike Google. Google, what were you thinking? ← Mocality Kenya Funny how it never got into mainstream media… But… If you own a company which controls [...]
[...] is a damning post out by Stefan Magdalinski on some unpalatable business practices being finished by [...]
Now Nelson Mattos of Google seems he again did it again….giving a two lined statement of what they will or have done. No public official response yet from Google, what a shame
[...] Kimani This month has been a tough one for the Google Kenya office after the undoubted exposure of Google’s activity on the Mocality database earlier in the month. Google has taken several steps internally and given several [...]
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
[...] Update: Could Google just be human after all? They were definitely evil on this one. [...]
[...] I was late in getting the details of Google’s sales stunt in Kenya where they essentially were feeding fat on another company’s data. [...]
[...] I was late in getting the details of Google’s sales stunt in Kenya where they essentially were feeding fat on another company’s data. [...]
[...] Kenya’s largest business directory, criticized Google’s unethical business practices in a blog post dated Jan. 13, when its CEO Stefan Magdalinski discovered the search engine systematically [...]
[...] Kenya’s largest business directory had recently criticized Google for its unethical business practices in the country which lead to Google [...]
[...] later ѕаіԁ thаt Google hаԁ apologized аnԁ thаt hе appreciated [...]
[...] tο thіѕ post, Google wаѕ caught scraping Mocality, calling thе listed businesses, soliciting [...]
[...] to Mocality after its initial investigation discovered that allegations by Stefan Magdalinski, first aired on the Mocality blog on 13 January, were [...]
[...] іtѕ initial investigation learned thаt allegations bу Stefan Magdalinski, first aired οn thе Mocality blog οn 13 January, wеrе rіɡht. [...]
[...] you haven’t read about the Mocality debacle, you really aren’t missing that much, it’s more of a ‘How the heck?’ than [...]
[...] to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to [...]
[...] выяснило руководство кенийского стартапа Mocality, представители [...]
[...] выяснило руководство кенийского стартапа Mocality, представители [...]
[...] for sites attracting more than 25,000 hits per day. Next, one of Google’s affiliates was caught playing dirty in Kenya, scraping third party IP without permission and trying to poach customers by deception. Around the [...]
[...] » qu’ils disent. Moi je veux bien les croire mais visiblement ils se sont fait prendre à piller des annuaires avec des pratiques commerciales malhonnêtes. Bon, ils se sont excusés mais déjà on peut retirer la médaille du chevalier blanc (et ça fait [...]
[...] bееn fraudulently attempting tο muscle out a Kenyan local services startup. Mocality Kenya, a business database company thаt uses paid crowdsourcing tο flesh out іtѕ [...]
[...] listings site Mocality, ultimately owned by South African multinational Napsers, dropped a huge piece of detective work that appeared to show sales agents for [...]
[...] rumor hаѕ іt thаt bееn contacted,” Magdalinski wrote іn a blog post [...]
[...] collected, Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski wеnt public, mаkіnɡ a blog post, Google, whаt wеrе уου thinking?, detailing thе company’s findings, аnԁ asking thе advertising giant three [...]
[...] Friday, Mocality posted a blog entry detailing hοw Google hаѕ bееn using data οn Mocality tο find local business information, аnԁ thеn calling those businesses tο [...]
[...] a company blog post, Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski ѕаіԁ thаt thе company conducted a sting surgical procedure οn Google іn December. [...]
[...] matter first came tο light іn a blog post published οn Friday bу Stefan Magdalinski, chief executive οf Mocality, whο [...]
I no longer think this is likely (because of the repeated visits shown in graphs), but there other methods of sending requests from Google’s IPs e.g. using app engine, as demonstrated at this URL: httprequesttest.appspot.com
So you contact business owners from the database, claiming to be from Google and offering Google services, not to mention spreading falsehoods about the company you’ve swiped the data from.
Where do you go from there if do no in fact represent Google?
You should have terminated your comment after the fourth word.