The Big Brother of the Internet: Google.
So you really like Google, use it for searching, check your mails on it, link to your friends on Orkut, blog away on Blogger, create web pages on Google Page Creator, organize images using Picasa, shop using Froogle, read news using Google Reader, publish scraps of info using Google Notebooks, edit documents using Google Spreadsheets, find maps using Google Maps, view your home using Google Earth, soon you will be operating on Google OS....
Doesn't this sound like a monopoly of sorts? Not that you are forced into opting for Google products, its just that there are no good alternatives. So, what does all this mean for an average guy? It means that everything about your online "personal" life has a record on some Google server and you and I can't do anything about it. (I mean, I doubt that sending a mail to Google, asking them to delete all your private data would even elicit a response.) It all depends on how much you value your privacy. For me, I value it a lot but because of Google's sterling track record, I'm comfortable in entrusting private information to it. But that doesn't stop people from worrying about what "computer analysis" can be done to your private data in order to "catalog" you in the pecking order of the internet. Anunay was bothered with the same thought and came to more or less the same conclusion.
Anunay has posted a very nice reflective article here and if you bother to "Google" - "Google as Big Brother" , there will be plenty of good articles that will tell you why you should be wary of Google. Check out this article on google-watch.org(there it is again, the 17th time in this article) that I liked because of its objectivity, though I don't agree completely with all its points. In the end, you have to decide about the level of trust you are willing to put into a "monopolistic" data warehousing company. For the more privacy inclined, have a look at Scroogle. Oh, and don't forget to educate yourself here.
So you really like Google, use it for searching, check your mails on it, link to your friends on Orkut, blog away on Blogger, create web pages on Google Page Creator, organize images using Picasa, shop using Froogle, read news using Google Reader, publish scraps of info using Google Notebooks, edit documents using Google Spreadsheets, find maps using Google Maps, view your home using Google Earth, soon you will be operating on Google OS....
Doesn't this sound like a monopoly of sorts? Not that you are forced into opting for Google products, its just that there are no good alternatives. So, what does all this mean for an average guy? It means that everything about your online "personal" life has a record on some Google server and you and I can't do anything about it. (I mean, I doubt that sending a mail to Google, asking them to delete all your private data would even elicit a response.) It all depends on how much you value your privacy. For me, I value it a lot but because of Google's sterling track record, I'm comfortable in entrusting private information to it. But that doesn't stop people from worrying about what "computer analysis" can be done to your private data in order to "catalog" you in the pecking order of the internet. Anunay was bothered with the same thought and came to more or less the same conclusion.
Anunay has posted a very nice reflective article here and if you bother to "Google" - "Google as Big Brother" , there will be plenty of good articles that will tell you why you should be wary of Google. Check out this article on google-watch.org(there it is again, the 17th time in this article) that I liked because of its objectivity, though I don't agree completely with all its points. In the end, you have to decide about the level of trust you are willing to put into a "monopolistic" data warehousing company. For the more privacy inclined, have a look at Scroogle. Oh, and don't forget to educate yourself here.
Nice to know that my post inspired this one in some small way....... Thank you...... I think you've probably put it in a more reader friendly way than I've........ It definitely seems to have a better impact than mine....... Xcellent!!!
ReplyDeleteP.S. You forgot to add me on your blogroll, or so it would seem....
AMAZZZING!!!FLABBERGASTING!!!!!
ReplyDeleteid never imagined anything like this!!! thanks for the awareness.
really, privacy is no longer private, especially with "personalised Google".
frankly spkin,i once upon a time called myslf a "Google fan", under the awe of its supposedly superb search algos, pagerank and all that blah blah.
thanks again. nice stuff.
bbye
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI wrote a blog long back on wht might happen if the google passowrd is lost..
i sort of felt the increasing monopoly as a threat..
i have come across a few links which are realted and wayyyyy in depth
http://www.radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2007/09/google_fiction_evil_dangerous_surveillance_control_1.php
is a fictional account and somewhat good
and at teh end of the above artilce i found this
http://www.radaronline.com/features/2007/05/mark_frauenfelder_tools_of_the_web_sleuth_1.php
which is quite interesting..
even on random browsing iam coming across articles which are related to this..
like ur blog
PS:do leave me a notification if u have seen this post!!!