You may not even notice, but companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple are present for much of your day to day life. Some cases show that technology companies do not always use access and influence in the right way.

In some cases, questionable decisions by these giants are made public and compel powerful executives to explain or apologize. Privacy researcher Chris Gilliard commented on some of these bizarre measures following the controversy surrounding iPhone batteries to Business Insider.

Check out some of the controversies and the impact / justification they had.

1 - Where's my book, Amazon?

In 2009, the company removed books purchased from its consumers' Kindles, including George Orwell's 1984 classic. The company apologized and reimbursed readers, saying the works had been mistakenly published on the platform.

Needless to say, it is absurdly ironic to remove a book about a dystopian future in which an authoritarian government censors information, right?

Amazon disappeared with books in 2009

2 - Public Calendar

LinkedIn uploaded its users' smartphone calendar in 2012. Exactly, owners of Androids and iPhones woke up one fine day and their calendar information was available on the professional social network. The failure was even worse, as it also included personal notes (contact numbers, comments, and others) made on these calendars, as well as scheduled appointments.

The company stated that it had this authorization as users needed to give the application permission. However, sometime later, LinkedIn began to limit what was imported from users' mobile phones to social networking profiles. A little discretion doesn't hurt anyone, does it?

3 - The Facebook Experiments

The most accessed social network on the planet had its share of bizarre attitudes as well. In 2014, CCO Sheryl Sandberg publicly apologized after data scientists discovered that the company manipulated the 700, 000-user news feed for an entire week, just to see what their reaction would be.

Researchers pointed out that Facebook had changed people's feed to show more positive or negative news. Then the social network studied the content of user shares. The experiment raised a number of ethical questions about social networking.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO

4 - iPhone Battery

In December, Apple assumed it was slowing down the performance of older iPhone batteries. According to the company, the goal was to prevent the malfunction of older smartphones of the brand.

In December 2017, Apple admitted that it was slowing down the performance of old iPhones batteries.

However, the measure was not well received by consumers. Some even accused the company of slowing down the devices to force the switch. In response, Apple decided to provide a discount on changing iPhone batteries as compensation to customers.

5 - Uber Cases

Uber gave a demonstration of how much data large technology companies can collect from users in 2012. The transport app posted on its official blog about the relationship between Uber requests and where / when their users were having affairs . The post was deleted, but it detailed the cities and places with the highest casual sex rate.

Uber knows when you're having an affair

6 - Facebook and the feelings

A leaked document in 2017 points out that social network executives informed advertisers that they could monitor posts and photos to identify when teen users were feeling sad.

Facebook could monitor users' feelings accurately: stressed, defeated, anxious, nervous, stupid, silly and various other definitions were possible.

One document points out that Facebook informed advertisers that it could monitor teenage feelings.

The social network defended itself against the accusations saying that the document was only intended to help companies understand how people express themselves.

7 - Street View collecting data

Google admitted in 2010 that it used its Street View program car antennas to intercept data from open Wi-Fi networks in the United States. The company said it was a software software crash and ended the practice as soon as it got word.

The problem is that a US federal commission revealed that the cars were intended to collect this information and that huge bundles of data had been transferred to a company data center in Oregon.

If you missed a quote on the Galaxy Note 7, it's good to make it clear that not a deliberate decision to blow up the phones, so this case is not on the list.

Did you like the text? Be aware that this is just a taste of what is published daily in The BRIEF's newsletter, which brings you the top tech news every morning. It's serious, it's business, but with a very relaxed style (# big guy). To subscribe, just click there -> here

Clueless! 7 controversies involving major technology companies via The Brief

7 controversial decisions by major technology companies via TecMundo