In Google we trust
p2pnet.net News View:- How much of your life do you want to put at Google’s disposal?
The question is asked on MIT’s Technology Review in an item dealing with Google forway into the Wi-Fi biz.
It continues:
I’ve already noted several times that Google primarily offers all this really cool free stuff in order to mine your hard drive for information and use it to sell ads,” says the post. That’s why Google’s ‘Secure Access”‘ program – the first bit of the WiFi strategy to hit the street – is such a spooky irony.
It encrypts your WiFi data streams and filters your net experience through Google’s ’secure servers. Basically, Google is saying, ‘Use our encryption servers so no one will snoop on your data – except us.’
Indeed, I think it’s reasons like that that make people wonder whether Google, as it becomes ever larger, is moving away from its motto of “Don’t Be Evil”:
This worry shouldn’t just be limited to those of us who fear that the “don’t-be-evil” company is moving too quickly toward becoming an Orwellian Big Sibling. How else would you describe an advertising company that might have its Web-bots scanning everything on your hard drive, logging your Internet chats (and your VoIP phone conversations?), and taking a little peek at everything you send across the Internet? That kind of creepy can invite both public backlash and unwanted government regulation.
You do have to wonder how many more tentacles Google can get into the PC/Internet pie before users start to seriously question exactly what it is they’re up to and how much of your privacy you want to entrust to any one company.
Given that the company has just started offering “free” Wi-Fi to people who live in Google Town, aka Mountain View, the question might have come up this month. But in fact it arose almost exactly a year ago.
But back to 2006, “We want to understand what’s different about how people search once they have an extra element of mobility,” declared Chris Sacca, the company’s head of special initiatives. “Google will also be able to trial location-based services and contextual advertising over its new wireless network.”
Using a person’s position, “to provide them with information – including adverts for goods or services in the vicinity – is still in its embryonic stage, but is likely to be the next battleground for online companies,” says the story.
First Mountain View, then the world.
Meanwhile, could a government, not just the US government but, “maybe a non-U.S. government,” try to get in Google’s computer systems, asked Google ceo Eric Schmidt, recently?
“Our No. 1 priority is the trust our users have, and that would be a violation of trust, so the answer is that would not happen.,” he declared categorically
He later “hedged” a bit, saying, ‘We are reasonably satisfied…that this kind of thing could not happen at Google.”
But, he added, “Never say never.”
Also See:
Technology Review – Google’s Wi-Fi, September 21, 2005
location-based services – Google HQ town’s ‘free’ Wi-Fi, August 16, 2006
non-U.S. government – Our users are safe: Google, August 11, 2006
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