Google. Who’s Watching You? – TimesOnline

You only have to spend a few hours in the Googleplex, talking to Mayer and fellow Googleytes, to realise that, if anything, Schmidt was being conservative. Instead of worrying that they are going too far, Google’s top team talk, with poker faces, about a “300-year mission” that will eventually see almost everything – including, perhaps, one day you and me – linked to the web and searchable online.

Google = Creepy

There, I finally stated it publicly. The article containing the excerpt quoted above, illuminates Google’s long-term plans… And they really creep me out! I am a very private person, and I would really like to keep things that way. This is also why I don’t Twitter. Nobody needs to know what I’m doing at all times. Nobody!

Until the last two or three years, I thought that Microsoft was the creepiest corporation, now I firmly believe that Google has overtaken them as being the creepiest corporation in the world. Sure, there’s Blackwater, but at least they don’t kill you softly while you’re thinking that they’re doing you a favor. I dislike Google for the same reason I dislike Microsoft, they are too powerful. Power corrupts, and Google grows more powerful each and every day, as we feed their ravenous information machine by allowing them to control every aspect of our involvement with the Internet. They do this in much the same way that Microsoft overwhelmingly dominates aspects of what we do at the PC level. I find this deeply disturbing.

Incidentally, this is why I have always been a Mac person. I can’t abide any one company controlling so much of what I do. This is also why I continue to use Bloglines, and MapQuest instead of Google Reader, and Google Maps. Don’t get me wrong, I think Microsoft has some great products, their Operating System isn’t one of them, nor is their browser. The same can be said for Google, they have a fantastic search product that is second to none. However, on a personal level I refuse to use their suite of webapps (email, mapping, documents, etc…) for the sake of simple convenience as doing so places far too much power in their hands. I would like to, becasue they offer some really nice tools, but I don’t trust them. INFORMATION IS POWER, and we are once again (like Microsoft) creating a monopoly. Only this time it’s a monopoly over information, which is much more insidious than a monopoly over software.

I find this even more disconcerting considering today’s political climate, with The USA Patriot Act, the liberal use of National Security Letters, ubiquitous wiretapping, the execution of extraordinary rendition, and without Habeas Corpus as a safety net. Google is the ultimate Web 2.0 application, sadly, I believe they are leading us toward an information abyss where Google, or Google’s “partners,” and our own government will profile and track people based on what they are reading, writing, who they are conversing with, where they are going, and ultimately what information they seek. This is very creepy, and will undoubtedly lead to consequences contrary to Google’s core philosophy of making money “without doing evil.”

I like the idea of having all of my information in one place, and utilizing one portal to access it, however, even if Google has the best of intentions, they are creating a monster that can, and surely will be twisted into something perverse by people with other agendas… This is Human Nature, and until that changes, the World isn’t ready for Google’s vision of the future.

~ by Woeful on October 21, 2007.