I’m someone who builds cloud infrastructure for a living. I only touch AWS (Amazon), but the same applies to Azure (Microsoft) and GCP (Google).

Kagi is private. Saying that they “rely” on Google because they use GCP is akin to saying that the US Army relies on General Motors because they use Hummers. It’s just a provider. They’re renting virtual machines, compute power, storage, and network bandwidth nothing more. You can use GCP/Azure/AWS without your data ever being visible by GCP/Azure/AWS. It’s not because you use GCP that you have to use AdSense/Analytics/Fonts, etc. They are completely separate.

Politicians would have a field day with all the cloud providers if using one thing forced you to use everything.

Definitely doesn’t sound like an issue with Tor Browser in Strict Mode. /s

The simple fact that buying a $300 device and to “not expect software updates” is not considered a scam is hilarious to me.

In Denmark, I’m part of a union which publishes salary stats for every possible job title, management responsibility, education, in a fairly convoluted matrix. Still, this allows me to easily negotiate with companies and see how well they pay. There might be something organised by the government, but I’ve never had a need for it.

Germany has a principle of equal treatment. The only way to ensure this is respected is to discuss wages. There is a legal precedent that makes it completely unambiguous that discussing wages is protected. It may be uncomfortable, but that’s just social pressure, encouraged by companies.

https://www.hensche.de/Rechtsanwalt_Arbeitsrecht_Urteile_AGB_LAG_Mecklenburg-Vorpommern_2Sa237-09.html