Google
- The New Big Brother
For
some time now, the warm and fuzzy
feelings towards Google have dissipated
to be replaced by a certain unease.
What is Google up to? Google's entire
focus in its business strategy is
to ensure that their service enables
them to fully track you the internet
user so that they are able to provide
relevant search results. The companies
they are buying up on a daily basis
are chosen because their products
or services add to this business
focus.
Google's
CEO Eric Schmidt spoke about his
company's approach to personalisation
at a conference in the UK this week.
Google's focus on collecting data
on the internet user is far more
obsessive than one would imagine.
It seems that Google would like
to be able to predict, for instance,
what a user might want to do the
next day or what job he/she might
wish to take.
This
is a whole new take on providing
information on the closest shoe
shop! Google wants to be able to
predict that you want to buy shoes
on a given day and what your style
and fashion taste could be, the
budget you have towards your shoe
purchase, where you live and where
you will, most likely, want to shop.
All for the sake of providing relevant
search results? And if you don't
have a budget available because
you are broke, is Google going to
direct you to a loan facility?
In
order to try and re-assure people,
Google states that it will only
keep this personalised information
for two years. Who will police this,
one wonders. Moreover, it is becoming
increasingly difficult for internet
users to stay anonymous. A harmless
activity, one would think, of posting
a video on YouTube, will provide
Google with personal information.
Add to this Gmail and iGoogle, never
mind the information that Google's
new acquisition DoubleClick can
provide. Google is searching your
e-mails, your video posts and the
ones you are viewing and checking
on your RSS feeds. What contribution
will Google's acquisition 23andMe,
a human genetics firm, bring to
all of this invasion of personal
privacy?
Of
course the original warm fuzzy feeling
had in part something to do with
a statement by Page and Brin, the
founders of Google. They maintained
that one can make money without
doing evil. Then one finds Google
providing its search service in
China and agreeing to Chinese state
censorship. China doesn't exactly
have a lilly white reputation regarding
its handling of human rights. Add
to that Google's growing Big Brother
status and one wonders whether the
internet user should start getting
worried. Read more on this at Independent.
About the Author
Anja
Merret lives in Brighton, UK and
looks after her daughters business.
She also writes a blog and her articles
may be viewed at http://www.anjamerret.com.
