Re: [IAC#RG] Are new secret Google.com services stealing your bandwidth ? To Sarbajit.

I started updating Google Chrome on my 3G mobile pack as requested but it never finished the job so I aborted but found they had gobbled up 500 kb out of my 1.2 GB balance in about 10 minutes. Why update anyway?

Joya Roy

On 19 Jun 2016 13:33, "Sarbajit Roy" <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear IAC members

I am sharing an incident with you only since the vast majorty of IAC members will likely be the similar "victims" of Google.com - a US MNC - so I urgently need feedback fromour members if IAC is to complain to the TRAI and DoT.

As per an anonymous message posted to the reputed tech site SLASHDOT on 11.June.2016, Google.com has secretly launched programs like "Google Edge Network" for caching of its content like Youtube videos, Google search etc..

https://peering.google.com/#/learn-more/faq
https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/06/11/020243/google-permits-india-to-download-youtube-content-overnight

As I regularly monitor my broadband usage I was shocked to find that in  the past 48 hours my closely budgeted monthly free broadband data plan was being consumed in 1 day.

I tracked this down to URI "cache.google.com" which was "stealing" (sic) my entire bandwidth and had basically (and secretly) taken over my PC's harddrive for storing Google's files (using "peering" technogy) which were then being distributed locally to my neighbours on the same ISP. Over 90% of my usable bandwidth was being secretly stolen by "cache.google.com".

Since this is clearly being done with connivance with the ISPs they will probably deny and stonewall the existence of this practice and instead imply that customer is at fault. The ISPs would want tojack up their billings by x10 times considering that Google is so ubiquitous nowadays and 4G operators, especially, stand to make huge profits with such over-billing practices from google owned sites like Youtube.com, Googlemaps etc.

From my reading of Google's website link(s) it seems this caching practice needs cooperation of the ISP (internet operator). It appears Google prefers to inflict this with broadband users like those who have 4G/LTE and/or fiber-optic connections from 1 Gbps+ ISP network pipes (you are probably relatively safer if you have ADSL modems where the ISPs are already throttling the upload speeds) where there are symmetric connections and upload transfer speed equals download speed. As per Google this is done because

"Google aims to deliver as much traffic as possible via edge nodes (GGC) in your network (if any) and peering connections, as this will generally provide the optimal user experience and lowest cost delivery for both the operator and Google"

..

"Edge nodes (Google Global Cache, GGC)

Will Google offer edge nodes in all countries and regions?
We face certain legal limitations to providing edge nodes in some countries, Generally, if a network operator or ISP meets our policies and operates in a country where we don't face restrictions, we will deploy edge nodes."

In other words I suspect Google is now deploying - and getting away with this kinf of "theft" of user bandwidth - because of lax ( or more likely "corrupt") regulatory regimes in India.

Although I am the last person to give advice, IAC users may see if they are similalry facing problems requiring them to simply uninstall "Google Chrome" and "Google Update(r)" from their systems (which seems to have, for now, vastly improved my bandwidth consumption).

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95319?hl=en

http://antivirus.about.com/od/windowsbasics/ht/googleupdate.htm

excerpt

"The googleupdate may continually attempt to access the Internet without requesting permission and without providing an option to disable it. This behavior may persist even after the parent application has been removed."

Other expert users on this list may share their experience with me on my email ID.

Sarbajit Roy

PS: I am attaching a screenshot below ​which shows that even after manually slowing down (thrttling) my internet from 10 Mbps to a mere 512 kbps (the mininum TRAI define "broadband" speed it was all being consumed by cache.google.com.

Post: "indiaresists@lists.riseup.net"
Exit: "indiaresists-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net"
Quit: "https://lists.riseup.net/www/signoff/indiaresists"
Help: https://help.riseup.net/en/list-user
WWW : http://indiaagainstcorruption.net.in