Say no to google or be beaten
Ok, so people laugh at me when I say that 2008 will be the year I abandon google. “Why on earth would you want to do that?” I hear all the time. And my usual answer is that while I am too young to have been affected by the “red scare” I feel that google prominence in the web and as a data collection agency, puts us on the brink of a much worse time. I accept that perhaps I am being a bit eccentric and take the jabs and wear them well.
But its articles like this one today on slashdot that reaffirm my fears over googles position in the world market place. After being asked by the authorities for the identity of an Orkut user, google handed over the information. If we are to believe what the article says:
He was arrested and is reported to have been beaten by a lathi and asked to use the same bowl to eat and to use in the toilet.
Obviously the punishment was not handed down by google, but they certainly broke all barriers of trust by caving to authorities. I understand that this is in a foreign land, and their customs are not the same as ours. But this attitude about offering up information about users and their online habits is just one reason that we should all be weary of the power of google.
So the next time you grab a feed from feedburner (which i still use), look at a site displaying adsense (which I still use), or search for that hard to spell word in the foreign dish you are about to make. Google is watching and they are creating a profile about who they think you are. Who will google tell the government you are when the next terrorist attach happens?
And this is why I am working to abandon google services. I recognize that its not just a drop and run thing. I use too many of their services myself. But I am slowly replacing their services with the hopes that I can stop writing myself into their mischief log. In fact I found this article while reading posts in Rojo my new online rss reader which has now replaced google reader in my life. Thats one more google service I need not worry about.
And I hope you’re already using Scroogle as your search engine!
HE HE HE, thats a great search site. I was actually discussion with ryan stewart last night about what search engine is the least evil. And despite Microsoft being my #1 most untrusted company, I think their ads in yahoo’s search results would be better than continuing to use googles search.
M$ may want to make some money but they are not smart enough to see the value in tracking everyone in the world no matter what site they are on. Google only lives up to that.
I think it is in our human nature to sometimes trust those in power even when they seem to get into “unethical” situations.
I was bothered back when Google tried desperately to get into China’s market nomatter the cost of filtering content.
This orkut story you’re telling us bothers me too…
But, you need to understand that they are a huge company and sometimes have to respect the policies of other countries.
I still trust Google and will continue to use them.
Well, I agree with you. At my current position, I was asked to help do a legal review of some of the Google, Yahoo and MSN services for our users. It was shocking to actually read through the Google TOS for their apps. My organization is very paranoid about Intellectual Property, and what rights you give up when you do anything in the cloud.
Google decided that they want an unequivocal, perpetual, and unrevocable license to search, mine, store, post or market any information that is stored in Google Docs, Numbers, and to a smaller extent, gMail. In fact, they even go as far to say that they can excerpt ownership over your content, if the legal need arises. Microsoft Live is /almost/ as bad.
I couldn’t get through their Search TOS. I’m sure if I did, we’d be blocking Google, and everybody at my organization would hate me :P
‘Do no evil’, my ass.
I don’t consider myself any sort of conspiracy theorist, which I am accused of when I claim a nearly google-free life. As mentioned above we reviewed what they own of the data and was not happy, and the whole “do no evil” mantra is just an easy digestible media soundbyte for users to absorb IMHO.
Not saying Google will do anything, but when you give your entire life to be aggregated by one service you put yourself in a spot if they ever do decide to wield the power of data ownership.
If they never do, then that will be a wonderful first case study of a truly altruistic corporate entity.