My tech-savvy next door neighbor Elizabeth sent me an article about Consumer Watchdog who is deeply concerned that “Google knows more about you than the FBI.”
Google knows every mental itch you’ve ever tried to scratch in the last 5 years. Heck yeah baby…
Dude, Google knows more about you than your WIFE.
“The Justice Department should be worried when Google tries to obfuscate its data tracking capacity and reach rather than disclose all of it,” said Judy Dugan, research director of Consumer Watchdog. “Congress should demand that Google stop tracking Americans’ online behavior without their prior permission.”
Article is here
Google’s Power Point presentation about Targeted Advertising (pretty educational, actually, especially for Content Network advertisers)
Here’s a satirical, left-leaning mock-up of that same Power Point by the privacy people
AND:
Google is releasing the Chrome Operating System for netbook PC’s. With services like Google Docs who needs MS Office anymore? Google replaces Microsoft. It’s built on Linux, it’s free, and no Microsoft OS cuts the cost of a new computer by perhaps 80 bucks or so.
Perfect for the $200 Wal-Mart PC. It’s coming, baby, just you watch.
And who knows…. it might not need anti-virus software that clogs up your system and slows the whole experience to a crawl (my biggest gripe about Windows).
Can you think of anybody who consistently comes up with more irresistible offers than Google?
Article: Google’s OS Model Borders on the Brilliant
I’d love your comments about all of this stuff. But first, some grist for the mill – my thoughts:
-Google has done a glorious job of doing what I encourage all my customers to do: Create offers that are so sensationally irresistible that you can’t help but use their search engine. They’ve beat all comers fair and square.
-Google has brought unfathomably powerful technology to the fingertips of every person in the modern world. Yesterday I was printing a map for a friend from out of town and I click on a link and it displays an actual photograph of every intersection she needs to turn at. Who would have ever believed it, even 10 years ago?
-I am 100% totally in favor of Google having some good, serious competition. I WANT people to have strong alternatives. Let’s talk about PPC for a moment. Their rivals have just plain sucked. MSN AdCenter is a pain in the ass. Yahoo Search Marketing pay per click is cumbersome at best. MSN has only 5% as much traffic as Google and it’s not as good. Yahoo has only 30% as much traffic and it’s not as good.
-Yahoo NEVER could get their act together and Google totally kicked them in the ass. Advertisers said, “Please make it easy for me to give you my money!” But Yahoo clogged it up with red tape. I had a multi-billion dollar mutual fund consult with me and we spent a whole hour talking about how Yahoo couldn’t get their act together. That was 3 years ago. They still haven’t.
-Am I afraid of Google becoming Big Brother? YES I AM. Google is immensely powerful. All the stuff Google knows about me? Frightening. (Especially because I use Gmail extensively). 2009 is 1984.
So what do I think about these Watchdog Groups? Some thoughts:
* There isn’t a DANG THING that Congress can do about this. Congress can’t stop guns, drugs or illegal immigrants. What makes anybody think they can regulate 1’s and 0’s?
* The Internet is an international, world-wide phenomenon. A web server can be anywhere in the world. Any lawmaker in Washington DC who thinks they can rope this thing in has his head shoved up his ass. (Actually, most lawmakers have their heads shoved up their ass, that’s nothing new. For example, Obama is spending $18 million of “economic stimulus” money to redesign the Recovery.gov website.)
* If people don’t want Google to know what they’re doing they can use Bing. They don’t have to use Google Maps or Google Docs or Google AdWords or Google’s search engine.
* Yes people can use Microsoft Windows and nobody’s forcing them to use Google’s OS. But Windows sucks. I switched to Mac 3 years ago and I would never go back. Windows is 20 million lines of bad code. I’m surprised Microsoft is even holding out as long as they are, because their flagship product stinks. 3/4ths of the people I know HATE Vista. Microsoft has had to discontinue selling XP and “force” people to Vista. NOT a good sign.
* I think it’s interesting that people think they have a “right” to use Google’s free services, AND they think they should be able to go to Congress and outlaw Google getting paid to give them the best technology in the history of the world – maps, scholar, docs, the whole search engine – again for free
* How about people just opt out of using Google? There’s Yahoo, Altavista, Hotmail. Or, God Forbid, having their own POP email account and using software on their own computer….
* Privacy is dead. It’s been dead for years. Heck, it was dead 15 years ago when marketing was about mailing lists. You can’t hide. You can only blend in, if you choose to.
* Honestly I don’t think that, in practical terms, people really care all that much about privacy. They’d rather be able to search their email. That was the tradeoff for me: “I could do normal POP email with a client on my own private computer, or I can have instantly searchable email anywhere in the world…. I’ll take the latter.” Yes, it’s seductive.
But nobody can FORCE you to be seduced. Actually we all love to be seduced and we often let it happen, willingly and without resistance.
* ONLY the marketplace can solve this problem. Government can’t, self-deluded watchdog groups can’t. Only individuals can make their own choices and only innovators and entrepreneurs can build technology platforms that make the web better.
I would LOVE your comments. Post ’em below.
Perry Marshall
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
92 Comments on “Google knows more about you than your WIFE”
Perry you are one smart dude, but on this issue you are worrying about nothing.
You could take these same recent articles and posts, backdate them 10 or 15 years and change the ‘villain’ to Microsoft…. Because that was what the public dialogue was about then.
EVERY SINGLE prediction was that Microsoft would rule the world! They would take over television (remember that?)… they would own all forms of communication. They would be the primary producer of phone system software.MSN would kill all other internet providers.
You name the technology, MS would be in it and drive all other competitors out. All the talk was about, “Does Microsoft need to be broken up?” Do we need a Chinese wall between their OS division and the Application division?
Did it happen? NO. They remained dominant in their core products (OS and Office suites)as they had been for many years. In all other markets they are a loser (MSN, etc)
Google will meet a similar fate. just give it time.
People are concerned about privacy? Really?
If they are, how do they explain the popularity of Facebook, and Twitter? Twitter’s mission is to ask people that volunteer to participate…”What are you doing?”
What am I doing? I am doing what I want to do…and what that is, is my business! Not only that, I don’t understand why you’d want to know what I’m doing. And I don’t think you do care what I’m doing…you just want to tell me what you’re doing — whether I care or not.
I don’t tweet. I don’t bare my soul on Facebook. That’s what I can do to protect my privacy. And you can do the same thing if you want to protect your privacy. If not …tweet and bare to your heart’s content — but don’t pretend to be concerned about privacy.
Do I worry that Google knows too much about me. Not much. I think Google is too smart to use that information against me. What’s in it for them?
Now…if Microsoft had all that information about me, I’d be very worried!
One more thing on the sense of entitlement Perry spoke of.
It reminds me of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged”, where the most successful businessmen are constantly hemmed in by new restrictive laws which intentionally cut into their profit for the “public good”.
People screamed for these mens’ products at the same time as they made every effort to make their production impossible.
Forget “1984”; Google doesn’t care about controlling us. Ayn Rand’s dystopia is already upon us, and THAT should scare every entrepreneur a lot more than an imagined Orwellian society.
Forget the technology the Most High has; I’d like to know how He created us and put us on autopilot to have guy like Google, create watchdogs. I’d like to know that.
I’m imagining two men with high-powered rifles.
The first man lives in the open country. The land is unpopulated, untamed, unregulated. He uses his rifle to hunt game, and he’s good at it. His family always has enough to eat.
This man’s name is Google.
The second man lives in the city. There’s tall buildings, cars, people everywhere. No one really knows what this man is hunting after, but he fires his rifle haphazardly, and sometimes he misses wildly. But he’s been around so long, no one does much about it.
This man’s name is Microsoft.
We have no reason to fear Google, because we know what game they hunt: advertising. Like a good hunter, they’re watching the trends and thinking two steps ahead of the game.
(They could make themselves even less scary by allowing easier methods to opt out — like easier ways to get your google docs back, and easier ways to dump your gmail.)
We have lots of reasons to fear Microsoft, because even they have forgotten where their target is. They’re firing blindly, hoping to hit something that will make them enough money to keep afloat for another decade.
there’s this “internet is dangerous MEME” that gets a lot of press since it appeals to the conspiracy theorist in everyone!
i think this is BS actually.
what does google really know? where you are and what sites yo’re clicking on? so what?? who cares really? they are serving up more relevant ads which is a better customer experience.
if you’re really worried about it, don’t use your name in your account.
but all this “they know all this stuff about me…” is a bit of nonsense. at best they know your name, city, state.
On June 3, 2005 Google CEO Eric Schmidt made this statement on the Charlie Rose show:
Search is a force for peace and a better world.
Google will reveal how everybody lives and thinks
and speaks and looks and that is beneficial to world peace.
Societies get along better when they know/see/hear more about each other.
Welcome to the hive mind.
Regarding the above quote, in their 2008 SEC filings it was revealed that Google spent $425,000.00 on Schmidts personal security, so I guess it only applies to the rest of us.
While it may be impossible to prevent tracking, it is possible to obfuscate the results and make your profile unreliable. For instance, for private searches use http://www.scroogle.org/scraper.html. They act as a proxy between you and Google. No cookies, no geo location, no data retained.
When using Google for business research there are free high speed proxies such as UltraSurf and Hotspot Shield.
Again, you can’t really stop all tracking but you can make the data unreliable.
What happened to Joe the Plumber recently is a prime example that privacy is dead. His personal information was used to try and discredit him, and it literally happened overnight.
Technology is a double edged sword, indeed.
Paul
Eat Well. Live Well.
PurpleGreenPops.com
Perry,
My views on this subject have been challenged and intrigued by the posts here.
Can you give us your take on how data collection advertising may evolve in relation to targeted adwords testing. Is there something truly revolutionary coming?
Minus the doomsday concerns about technology, what do you see as the probable future for this stuff? Are we headed somewhere fundamentally different than “People who bought this also liked this”?
I have my doubts.
Some more of my thoughts:
As scared as Google data collection makes people from a privacy angle,to me the more likely outcome is just a more ubiquitous form of “People who bought this also liked this.”
At best it’s helpful and convenient. At worst, it’s useless and ignored. But why isn’t it revolutionary?
I think it’s because 1’s and 0’s aren’t revolutionary. It’s only the creation and interpretation of their patterns that are.. and both of those require intelligent hard work. Darn It. Two things BTW that large corporations aren’t exactly known for.
Even the most brilliant algorithm will fly off the handle if nobody’s behind the wheel. Very pressing case in point about risk management and economic downturn here:
“The equation that killed your 401K”
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant?currentPage=3
In the linked article, the watchdog group asks:
“4. Is Google’s behavioral advertising really about delivering more interesting ads or is it about expanding its data collection and targeting activities?”
Why the heck would Google want to collect data that they’re not going to monetize? This is the “Coke on My Shirt” concern I posted earlier in it’s direct form. Sorry to tell you but Google doesn’t care what you do. They care what markets do.
They’re algorithms aren’t looking for grains of sand. They’re looking for waves and migrations.
But, perhaps I’m missing an angle here. Is the concern that the search data will be linked to my name and address and shouted form the roof tops? Or is that the resulting targeted advertising will be offensive or intrusive?
Because neither of those concerns are unique to what google is doing. Like you said, privacy was dead 15 years ago, but tact is not. Generally speaking most companies still provide a plain brown bag to hide whatever you’re ashamed of buying.
The market has it’s own built in deterrents to tyranny. It’s commerce, and the crowd will go somewhere else. Like my first sales manager told me, “Put the carrots where you want the rabbits to run.”
Orwell said:
“My recent novel [Nineteen Eighty-Four] is NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or on the British Labour Party (of which I am a supporter) but as a show-up of the perversions … which have already been partly realized in Communism and Fascism. …The scene of the book is laid in Britain in order to emphasize that the English-speaking races are not innately better than anyone else and that totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere.”
Of course, english speaking races are not innately better than anyone else, but there is a reason that western society operates successfully on a very fragile shell of capitalism and democracy. I don’t think the answer is fighting against totalitarianism – or at least that shouldn’t be the focus.
I think it’s fixed squarely on valuing education and opportunity – and the often left out point of marketing that education and opportunity to the masses.
Just because something is being sold to a crowd doesn’t make it propaganda.
I’m not downplaying the force of an entrenched tyrannical government. But, it should be noted that the entrenching power comes along to fill the void of people’s belief in opportunity and education. It doesn’t come to power through technology.
What stops me from joining a drug cartel and kidnapping my neighbors? The fear of going to jail? My race? My religion? Patriotism?
Any of those answers could be it for me as an individual, but for a society (market) – it’s simply because there are better options.
More specifically, better options combined with effective marketing. Marketing done through the social constructions of family heritage, societal role definitions, gatherings, speeches, curriculum, blog posts, entrepreneurial seminars, and autoresponders.
The real “Big Brother” is not the progression of technology. It’s the vacuum created by the disintegration of quality marketing that sells education and opportunity.
Way too long as usual, but those are my thoughts.
thanks for the forum to read and post insights and questions.
Nick
Giving up on privacy Perry is giving up on a basic human right.
I think google is scary and I hope Bing improves and takes market share.
I want Google to be broken up and regulated. I resent them spying on my house – they are way more sinister than any secret service in the world and it is time that we put some limits on this vast advertising agency.
For that reason I do not use gmail, google reader, google docs etc.
I want diversity and openness and Google and Microsoft don’t seem all that different to me.
Google simply has very good PR.
All we need is a well publicized event where security is compromised on a Google server somewhere in their HUGE network of servers – and personal information gets leaked. Then there will be a massive outcry for reform, and Google will listen not because of the government, but because of their customers! Such an event is bound to happen one day.
Google is certainly not alone in monitoring our activities. I was recently accused of criminal activity by the Holier-Than-Anybody “Business Software Alliance”. They reported me to the FBI and sent a threatening notice to my ISP strongly urging them to cut off my Internet service because their monitoring indicated I must be guilty of software theft and piracy.
What did I do?
I needed to reinstall Windows XP Pro on a computer that I bought from IBM in 2001. I no longer had the original Windows XP CD, but I own a license key and have the Microsoft proof of ownership certificate. I decided that the fastest way for me to get a replacement CD was to use BitTorrent to download an ISO image. I found one within a few minutes of searching, downloaded it and burned my CD. An hour later I had my fully licensed IBM computer running again. The CD image I downloaded was impossible to use without a license key (yes, I know there are fakes, but I had no intention of using anything but my own which was bought and paid for).
Now, I called everyone and had no trouble defending myself THIS time (except that the accusation remains in a file somewhere, making me suspect in the future) but this experience serves as an example. Don’t imagine that it is impossible in the near future for storm troopers to preemptively crash through your door and confiscate your equipment and your data because of such irresponsible monitoring and accusations by misbegotten supposed do-gooders.
As an advertisor, I think its great. As a human being who is quite concerned over loss of power and privacy, I dislike it very much.
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Where might personal information eventually go and for what purpose?
Hmm, the satirical presentation just seems to be repeating the same points over and over again. I think the main, and potentially valid, point being that Google stated in 2008 that it had no interest in “behavioral advertising”.
My take:
1. Privacy: I think this is something that people think they want but don’t realize that they don’t actually have any. Personally, I don’t value my privacy at all. There is no difference between what I do in a day with nobody watching and a million people watching. It doesn’t affect me in the slightest. I believe that the only reason people want privacy is so they can do something unethical and know they can get away with it (an extreme point-of-view, I know).
People don’t know what they want: they are paranoid about their “privacy” but they are frustrated when the bank won’t give them certain account information over the phone due to privacy laws.
I myself have made a point of making my life as public as possible. A Google search of me can reveal my phone number, address, photos, and business dealings.
2. Google-as-Big-Brother: I prefer that Google collects information about me. I would rather have Google collecting my information than any of the world’s governments. Here’s the difference: Google actually has an interest in serving you, the government doesn’t. Also, Google gives you a choice in using its services, the government doesn’t. I agree with you Perry, if you don’t want Google collecting information on you, don’t use Google! I also find it entertaining that people feel entitled to use Google’s, and all of the internet’s services, for free. What gives?
3. Google is allowed to change its mind. Yes, they are.
There are a host of Google services that I don’t use and will probably will not use in the future. That is my choice to opt out. I also don’t think that Google will be the dominant player forever. If the (brief) history of internet companies can show us anything, we know that new companies can pop up overnight and change everything within a year or two.
There’s a Google version of everything. They have more stuff than most people realize. Including an affiliate network I just found like last week that’s been there for like a year or more from what I gather.
Did you know Google has a free 411 number? 1-800-goog-411
It’s free, with no advertising, and connects you to the number without you having to dial a thing or even say “yes”.
Soon there will be Google Hosting (if there isn’t already), and not only will they have the biggest index of websites, they’ll actually host them too…
Google Lively will eventually catch up to Google Earth, and then Advertising will go to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. (And so will the amount of information Google knows about everyone)
It won’t be long before they OWN the internet…They basically control it anyway now.
Very interesting post Perry! Thanks!
Hello,
I find it a little alarming when I do a search and google displays what is already on my computer related to my search. But on the bright side, it is a trade-off for free use of their services.
Regarding the notion that loss of privacy is a good thing:
This is a version of the, “I don’t have anything to hide” arguement.
I would agree if loss of privacy only impacted unlawful behaviour. However, history is replete with examples of how people are stigmatized, discriminated against, harassed, or directly attacked just for being different. Or targeted just because they have something other people want.
This notion that privacy is only important to lawbreakers is one of the most dangerous ideas to take hold in recent times. The fact is that privacy is the only thing giving me and you freedom from all types of social pressures to conform, even if the social pressure is only your kids being picked on at school because they are different. If being black would have been an issue of privacy, say like being gay, there would have been a lot fewer lynchings.
Privacy is important because humans are a suspicious, unforgiving, unmerciful, intolerant, narrow minded, greedy bunch. Not all of them. Maybe not even most of them. But there are enough of them in every town, city, and neighborhood, in my neighborhood, that I don’t want anyone knowing too much about my private life.
And then there are the do-gooders!
Privacy is the only thing keeping you and me free. Free of misery by a thousand little social cuts. Free from all the small harassments that destroy your quality of life and drive you out of a community.
Privacy is what makes it possible for you to be you when being you is socially unacceptable.
Everyone here Knows that it takes some time to get a winner.
Some day,maybe sooner than we think,someone will have a better product then google.then people will hate google like they hate MS.
The reason google is big is simple:
No one is better then them.Yet…
Thats the way of the internet.
Mark my words.
Microsoft has arrangments with all the PC manufacturers to put Windows on them as the OS. This is makes Microsoft number one. Many people don’t want to be bothered with changing out the OS. As long as it’s relative stable, they be happy with what they have.
After all Linux has been available for free for years now. How many hits do you see in your website stats from Linux systems?
Plus the fact that so many people have and will continue to have Windows OS make a difference as well. People will want the same OS the office has, or the school has, or their neighboors have. They be happy with what they are used to. People are resistant to change when it comes to their computer.
Ouch – its amazing how easily it is to ‘not notice’ – which sounds stupid. All our websites run Google Analytics because it’s wicked, but combined with everything from our Gmail to Adwords to search results ….. a threat to all men : )
I wonder what it makes of my Gmail account for subscribing to every email list under the sun?!
When I went to the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) exhibits in Chicago two years ago, over 100 exhibitors were data mining firms.
What amazed me was there are companies that have over 1,500 different data points on millions of people. They can generate a list of people with hundreds of attributes. They get their data from credit card purchases and many other ways. They can even get you a list of women who have bought size 9 shoes and are 42 years old that like pink instead of red lipstick.
Data is KING and Google is just another company that takes advantage of different methods to find out what their customers want. Just because many of their services are free, doesn’t mean we are not customers. Any good company will tell you that finding out what your customers want – not need – is the key to their success.
You are right Perry, if you want to use google’s services then you have to agree to their terms. If you don’t agree, then go use something else. And like you mentioned, there are tons of options, but they are not very good.
It’s not fair and you don’t agree, but it’s not your company. How many people read the terms anyways, yet waive their rights to disagree by clicking anyways because they want to use google’s services? It’s not like it’s hidden by google’s secret monitoring program and you don’t have a choice. Many people can read, but live like they can’t.
Government interfering with business has historically been bad for everyone involved no matter who tells you differently.
In payment processing in Canada. Many business associations want the Government to step in and regulate the credit card processing industry more. When that happens, the consumers will lose big time and the business owners will lose.
I am a fanatic with gmail, adwords and other google products, I’d still be managing a restaurant 60hrs/wk if this technology was not available.
I’m with Nick Neilson on this one :-)
My windows XP has crashed three times this morning alone. Even Mac has given into windows.
(I owned the second Mac sold in Illinois. It ran Microsoft Word and Excel on 128K. What does it take to run them today?)
I can’t wait for Google or anyone else to take Microsoft OUT!
And who needs Chrome on a schmoov running MacOS?!
:)
I LOVE Google! Thanks to Google I am able to “work” anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. I become intrigued by a niche. I develop a digital info product on my laptop with Google Docs. I buy a domain and setup a web site. I turn on the machine and check my gmail account each morning around 10ish when I wake up and see how much $$ I made while I slept. Then, I go kayaking on the lake in front of my house that I purchased with Google Adwords income.
Thanks for a great life, Google!
[email protected]
Perry – interesting article. Yeah, it’s scary what they can learn. It’s also scary what our government can do. So rather than be scared, I like the perspective of how you educate to see how to use this as an advantage.
The only problem with Google knowing more about me than my wife, I get no FRINGE BENEFITS with Google! :)
Chris.
Speaking of being more moral…
Why do we type “G-D” instead of “GOD”, while on the same page we type “ass” and “shit”?
Just like your wife, Google knows only what you tell it. It thinks you want a “Hypergeometrical Universe” when you really want peace and morality.
Perry as usual – a timely and relevent post with both business and personal impact! I love it when you get on a roll… can almost hear your voice! As most things there is a light and dark side. You pointed many of them out! Google brings that front and center to see. Maybe Google is “the force” Does that make Sergey – Yoda or Darth Vader?
Perry – May the Google be with you – hmmm just doesnt sound the same
I think we would all be a bit better off if we would quit focusing on how we think the world should work and start trying to work with the way the world works.
I believe that at some point in the future, society will look back and identify this time era as AG – (After Google – for those who are slow on the uptake.) The toothpaste is out of the tube and there is no putting it back.
Learn to live in the world today, Google and all.
Perry,
There is one argument that privacy advocates miss entirely: Google OS will be open-sourced.
Now, this means that Linux geeks will be combing through the source, and modifying it as they do. They could well strip all of GOOG’s tracking mechanisms out, and release “Google OS, Privacy Version”.
My guess is(this is only a guess) that Google will attempt to subvert this by making a Google account login a requirement for use. Then, the EULA will allow GOOG to force updates to the OS that push all their tracking mechanisms back in.
This is an area that could well be a gigantic failure for Google. Linux geeks won’t run it, because they already know how to use Ubuntu (this OS gives you a great amount of control over privacy.). Window’s users will switch to MAC or stay with Windows 7 (which will be the next XP). Business users are not going to use GOOG OS to protect their trade secrets, regardless of stability or ease of use.
Even with growing Netbook usage, Google is still too late to the party. At this point, the development of such a platform is just going to be a really expensive hobby project.
Google knows their market, but I don’t think the revenue is going to be such that it even breaks even.
People are naturally suspicious of change, and even 1 or 2 national news reports on the privacy issues will have them crawling back to Ballmer and Co.
P.S. ( I loathe M$ Vista (aka Windows ME Plus) )
A well written rant as always.
Google isn’t the first company to know lots about you. Visa sure knows a lot, your bank knows a lot. Your doctor knows a lot. There are databases sitting everywhere with info about you.
The real risk is not that this data exists, but that this data is put to nefarious use. Google, banks, insurance companies, medical firms all have such potential and from time to time cross the line. Some gentle reminders from our friendly neighborhood government should provide some moderation so it can’t get out of hand.
BTW, I don’t think targeted marketing is nefarious use.
This is scary and exciting at the same time. Perry you’ve hit the nail on the head again. Not sure my wife will be too happy when I tell her there’s a lady or should I say uber freaky helpful seductive caring privacy-slaying omniscient machine that knows more about me than her. I like Google and I’m sick and tired of restartin my PC daily.
Perry,
I agree with you. If people don’t like something that Google is doing then they should just stop using Google’s services. It’s a waste of legislator time and tax payer money to try to regulate Google’s activities. And to my knowledge Google’s never done anything bad with all the search data they collect on us. In fact,they probably use it in their algorithm to make search better for everyone. So I’m all for Google knowing what I’m doing–at least for now.
I’ve noticed Google turning into Big Brother for some time now.
Isn’t amazing what we’ll give up for something that is free?
Email, web browser, ANALYTICS, and much more is offered by Google and the only cost is…YOUR PRIVACY!
Note: sit back for a moment and think about how much info we give Google by voluntarily putting their analytics code on every web page we have. It’s worth it…right?
The fact that we are cheapskates drove Wal-Mart (and others) to demand lower prices from suppliers which drove those suppliers to stop producing in the USA and move production to China.
People don’t think much of that right now, but they probably didn’t think much about wanting the cheapest scrabble board…until the factory was shut down.
Don’t even get me started on medical records.
Whew, who knew I’d get worked up into such a lather.
Google, just like Microsoft, is looking to expand their revenue base. Both have failed miserably in almost every attempt and is dominate in their own field of endeavor.
It does appear that Google has taken the evil empire role more so lately. And they are much more invasive in their monitoring and tracking.
I doubt either can repeat their success in another venue, the lead by the originator is just too large to overcome.
Bling still sucks, Yahoo is wandering, and Google prevails. Same with Microsoft in Operating Systems and Office, when most software is written for one OS, it wins.
Mac and PC choices come down to availability of software and price. Apple has legions of adamant followers but the mainstream still goes PC due to price and choices.
Google PCs will go the same way as Google phones. Interesting but not enough to change.
The two titans will continue to lob grenades but none of them ever explode. Just another day in the neighborhood.
Like you said Perry, the Big G (Big Brother from 1984) knows just about everything about you, your neighbors, and me…
The thing is, again as you said, what Google™ has been doing, is offering people high quality alternatives to the things that they use offline, online, and for free. And, they have disclosed that they will be tracking (y)our use of their services.
I also fully agree that while the government(s), and “watch dog groups” may be a good thing, they are essentially powerless to stop Google. Besides, do the USERS of Google’s services want Google stopped?
Another example of how Google’s going to know more about us, more than our “significant others” if you will? The “New” Google Voice service… Your voice mail, transcribed.
On a final note, I’m surprised (not really, but…) at the amount of data that can be found on almost anyone, just by using Google’s search engine (for free), in combination with one or more paid services… It’s something how it really is a “Small World After All”…
Be Well!
ECS Dave of http://extracashsystems.com
The watch dog groups are a joke.
Why bother with Google while hundreds and hundreds of millions of people are putting their own detailed personal data (complete with their email, phone numbers and street addresses) on MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, and countless other social networks for the whole world to see.
As for any potential competition to Google, I totally agree with you, it’s a no where to be found.
For PPC marketers, Facebook may be the only potential competitor that may come to take some of Google’s pie.
Cheers Perry, cheers. This is spot on.
Hi Perry ,
it s good you remind me of
these facts.
Isn t there even a copyright issue
with google having a copyright on everything
you send through googlemail …
ok I ve just heard that
I m not sure about it
but would be good to think twice.
But what I like about googlemail
is the lack of spam….
..thats absolutely convincing…
any alternatives around for that???
thanks
Frank
http://OfferMonitor.com
Actually it was ME looking at hypergeometrical universe stuff. Google must have found my email address in your distribution list and correlated my interests with yours.
This may be bigger than Big Brother.
Incidentally, I make my living programming Windows applications, but I have been a secret Mac fan for years. Unfortunately I have to keep all Windows machines around the shop.
Latest on Vista Version 2.0 (oh, excuse me, I meant to call it “Windows 7) is that it comes with a built-in virtual machine that allows you to run Windows XP applications seamlessly inside a pure Windows XP environment (you also get a ‘free’ Windows XP SP3 license). The ironies here are delicious beyond description. Micro$oft is forced to take two steps back in order to take one step “forward”. The market has spoken, and even Mr. Gates’ mighty machine cannot ignore the thunder.
I Just DUMPED a 44 oz coke straight down the front of my shirt!
I was 14 and my Mom took me to a Yanni concert. It was outdoors with open grass seating. I dumped my coke all over my shirt 10 miutes before the concert started.
I was super embarrassed and wouldn’t stop talking to my mom about how all these people could see it and what they must be thinking about me.
Finally my Mom lost her cool.
“There’s 10,000 people sitting on the side of this mountain and each one of them paid $55 to come and see the guy in the spotlight play his keyboard. You think anyone of these people give a flying crap about the coke on your t-shirt?”
“They don’t even know you’re here. They only care that Yanni is here, and so do I. So, let’s just watch the show.”
I don’t get too far down the big brother road but I do have a deep suspicion that people’s fascination with big brother watching them is subconsciously linked to a much greater fear – that everybody in the world can stare at the Coke on their shirt if they want to… and nobody does, because nobody cares.
“Now… how did Google know I was looking for one of those new-fangled Hypergeometrical universes, anyway?”
Because you had just taken a $1 trial for the HYPO Geometrical Universe, and they were just trying to upsell you!
Rohit Sinha
PS: Google’s strategy is brilliant. By giving away products and services for free, they are “buying” bigger and bigger portions of our minds. And the more products and service they provide for free, the more individuals’ minds they are able to “buy”. And then they monetize those portions of our minds in all sorts of ways.
At the risk of sounding Orwellian:
The net effect is that with this deep and integrated level of tracking and recording, combined with today’s intolerant and in-your-face political climate (falsely labeled by special interests as “political correctness”) we have a society that will eventually make the McCarthy era look like a walk in the park. You can already more than feel it in the air.
The internet is a great thing for information, but it is a massive space for disinformation, and spin, and divisiveness. And it is unforgiving! Imagine the mistakes you made at age 12 preventing you from having a meaningful occupation at 50. And it’s only going to get more stifling.
However, specific to Google, you can bank on this prediction:
Eventually, Google will be broken up by anti-trust regulators. The question is only when. Their goal to know your every thought impulse will be their own downfall.
Even though I have spent vast amounts of money with them (the ‘devil’), and find some aspects of their services ‘useful’ as a consumer, I am deeply troubled by their massive contribution to the lack of privacy in our lives.
Consumers, the sheep that they are, take this all too lightly in the name of “free services” and “free software.”
If consumers would simply add the word “dumb” to the end of the word, “free” they’d see what this is all really costing them.
I gave up using google some time ago for the reasons outlined. I hated gmail and stopped using it. I have found that Bing is doing a pretty good job of search. When I compare the results of search between Google and Bing I don’t see any advantage to G and I like some of the features that B has added.
I don’t like my Vista machine, but love my XP machine. Call me a curmudgeon, but doing everything online is too slow, especially when you’re traveling.
I’m a web developer and prefer to do things on my desktop.
Aloha,
Nick
Hi Perry,
When it comes to ownership of browsing data the piranha in the pond is Microsoft and their closed standards and monopolist practice. I spent a miserable year along with the ODF Alliance fighting that company’s monopolistic practices in Europe, and one thing that came out was Microsoft were on a mission to lock in and own our data. I am very sure they wrote the Facebook terms that caused that recent revolution.
With Google, I’d be OK with permission based traits monitoring so long as I could know where else it might go, I dis-authorise it, and would have a way to see what they say about it.
But Microsoft is the data piranha global legislators have to deal with, as they already are with some success, and they are finding that company’s monopolistic practices and ingrained culture formidable.
The burning question is…
did you FIND the Hypergeometrical Universe, and was it as advertised !?
I was in my gmail this morning and I saw an ad that said:
Hypergeometrical Universe – hypergeometricaluniverse.com –
Time Quantization and Fat Electron HyperSpherical Shock-Wave Universe
Now… how did Google know I was looking for one of those new-fangled Hypergeometrical universes, anyway?
Perry
Well, I am pretty sure that God isn’t using Vista either.
Ya, on the one hand you have everyone worried about who knows what they are doing and all that jazz. Like you said, anything can be found out. Blows me away when someone new comes into politics and within a few hours you are seeing videos of something stupid they did 25 years ago. Where does all that come from.
As far as an O/S, the problem is that MS has always dominated that. They did some good marketing and got the early ground and became successful. The problem is that they screwed that up themselves. I am thinking if I had the market share that they have, I would put out a program that works. They haven’t managed to create reliable software since Windows 3.1 so poop on them.
Doesn’t really leave a clear outcome as this conversation has many facets.
With the patriot act, the government can get their hands on whatever they want. TMZ seems to always find the right person to pay off to get somebodys medical records… yeah, there is no privacy.
And that could be a good thing.
When people do something immoral thing, notice it usaally done in secret? In the dark? In a whisper?
Maybe, just maybe, if people know what is being watched, listen too, observed…people might act with a greater sense of morality.
The idea of being watched has a profound effect on behavior. Michel Foucault I’m sure would laugh at what’s happening today!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault
Which gets me to question:
What all this technology and the ability to record life on a memory stick, it makes me wonder…
…”What kind of technology does G-D have to watch over us. And is G-D always watching over us? And when our bodies cease to function, and the almighty assigns an angel to review our life…what kind of hardware is being used”
…and its probably not going to be Google OS!
Adam
ps, my site is down right now due to a hard drive crash. All my servers crashed, everything is toasted, along with backups. Hmmmm….what kind of memory backups would G-D use? Imagine its ur turn to review your life and the angel says, “Shit, not again…Well, we’ll just have to send you back to earth. Sorry about that”