With the recent leak of Google Calendar images onto TechCrunch, the speculation of GDrive and the indexing of the personal desktop via Google Desktop, all I can say is:
Google scares me!
Google appears to be out to own everyone's information whether it be cellphone conversations, emails, documents on your PC and most recently your schedule of events via Google calendar.
Does this bother anyone else?
Google has everything that is necessary to totally invade my privacy. It is the classic case of "big brother" that could alter our behavior, which in part invades our freedom. Like most of the general public, I like Google. It is to the point where my girlfriend calls me a" Google-phile" because I converse about them so often in the blogosphere, verbally and sometimes even while in my sleep. I even have a Google fleece throw that is quite honestly one of the nicest fleece blankets I have ever seen, which only further reinforces my liking for Google. However, Google's transparent and somewhat arrogant public relations approach has created a disconnect and its actions are speaking louder than its words.
What is Google doing to help ease the disconnect?
Google has executed a lousy public relations strategy. On the Google blog this week -- the same week that dropped both the speculation of a GDrive and Google Calendar -- the posts highlighted pugs and the Google News expansion. I think pugs are cute dogs and could act as a distraction, but it seems like a total avoidance of the week's happenings. I am afraid this type of avoidance could hurt Google in the long run. I am already hearing the whisper campaigns of a "Google is evil!" drawing parallel to similar campaigns towards Microsoft five or six years ago. I would hope that Google was able to learn from Microsoft and that the company will address these rumors now in the blogosphere where the conversations begin. Have a conversation with a blogger. Show them that Google is not too high and mighty for conversation with a lowly grassroots journalist with a love for cool products and the scope. The real irony here is that Google's simple rule of thumb has been:
"Don't be evil."
I would advise you to listen to Steve Gillmor's Daily Show as he talks with Mike Arrington of TechCrunch about Google. Mike shows some love for Microsoft for the way that they have been embracing the blogosphere and calls Google evil. I do not think Google is evil but do share similar fears to Mike in regard to Google's plans to invade our privacy and potentially our freedom. If Google would just take a more
apparent approach to educating the general public on the ins and outs
of its products and ultimately its intentions for all of my personal
information, the whispers would most likely be quelled.
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The irony of this is that the privacy fears concerning google are overblown in comparison to other online companies. Microsoft and yahoo have more information about it's users than google.
BTW, google desktop does not index your files to google's servers without permission. The files are indexed locally on your computer. Files are only saved to google's servers(and encrypted) if the user turns on the 'search across computers' feature, which is turned off by default. It stays on goole's server for only 30 days.
Google address parts of the issues with Google desktop on its blog. Your right that they need to talk more about their plans, and be more transparent.
Posted by: or | Saturday, March 11, 2006 at 03:23 AM
Thanks for the comments Or. I understand that Google Desktop by default does not index your PC. However, do you think the average Google user is going to realize what it means to the contents of your personal PC indexed and stored in Google's servers? Probably not.
I think that if Google communicated its intentions to use this information they will be better off in the long run. Not to mention, they should educate the public on product details and potential privacy concerns so they don’t look so suspicious when bloggers and mainstream tech journalists alike are the first to report them.
Posted by: Frank Gruber | Saturday, March 11, 2006 at 01:39 PM
This guy wrote about this today: http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/741/50/
Looks like you predicted it WAY before him
Posted by: dave | Wednesday, June 06, 2007 at 01:44 AM