
Yandex divulges info on Russian anti-corruption crusader - Uncle_Sam
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110502/tc_afp/russiauseconomyitinternetipocompanyyandex
======
raquo
RosPil is not about whistleblowing, they're better. What they do is they
analyze public government purchasing tenders and try to stop illegal ones by
filing official complaints and trying to publicize the issues. There are many
reasons a tender can be "illegal" – e.g. if it does not contain enough
information on what the government wants to be able to check that the bidder
did the required work.

Alas, I have a feeling these guys won't last long if they're effective.

------
d0mine
_In August, 2004, two passenger planes fell out of the sky within three
minutes of each other, killing eighty-nine people. It turned out that they
were downed by two female suicide bombers who had bribed an airport security
officer with five thousand rubles—around a hundred and seventy dollars—to let
them onto the planes._ </quote>
[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_...](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_ioffe?currentPage=all)
from <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2508107>

------
awakeasleep
A few months ago, Facebook and Twitter took flak for deleting the accounts of
revolutionaries, as it was a form of censorship.

Thinking about it, I decided the action wasn't all bad. If those services are
unencrypted, and operating in a regime that might compel them to disclose
information (& hurt activists), it _makes sense_ to delete the accounts. Let
the people know they aren't using the right tool for the job. Not only would
this act as an impetus for the creation of new tools, but it might directly
save lives.

It sounds like Yandex found itself in a similar position here, but failed to
act (or whatever). And now people will probably die or be ruined.

If you run a service that people could hurt themselves with, take a moment to
think about what will be safe for the user— aside from what you must do to be
safe/legal yourself. We live in a world where technology has created a new,
more dangerous form of illiteracy.

A phrase that describes it in my mind: "Adults become children when they play
on the information superhighway."

~~~
dchest
Yandex Money is more like PayPal. This is money changing hands, and to do
business you'll have to comply with various strict anti-money laundering/anti-
terrorism/tax/whatever-the-next-anti laws. The only alternative is cash and/or
better government.

------
Zev
_Yandex had planned to sell up to 20 percent of its shares in New York before
the onset of the global 2008 global financial crisis forced it to postpone
the_

And the article cuts off. Would assuming the word "listing" was intended to be
at the end of the sentence be a bad assumption?

------
cudima
relevant:
[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_...](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_ioffe?currentPage=all)

