Thursday, February 9, 2012

Privacy. Is it Com-Google-Plex?...


Everyone who is anyone on the web knows about Google. Google has the most power by way of tools and content than any other entity on the web. What's that one guys name from that one movie with the cool flashback scenes? Google it! Google for years now has been the premier in many things: Search engine, Language, E-mail, Road Maps and Satellite Imagery among other numerous things.


Did you know that Google is also the premier in data collection? Back in 2007, Google bought DoubleClick, the internet's best click-through tracking and web analytics service of it's time. Now, by no stretch of reality, Google has bucket-loads of information stored in a database about you, information that you never thought would be important enough to save. Even now as you read this blog on BlogSpot.com (a Google service... shocker), how long you stay, what you click while you are here, and what you end up searching for during and after is no doubt being recorded and sent off to the edge server databases.

Data, with use of advanced statistics and cross referenced with other data, has more power than you can imagine. Targeted Advertising, Marketing miracles, Invention ideas, Product improvements, and so on. The protection of all this data being collected about you has been a very touch and go subject for the past few years. What is privacy? Where do we draw the lines laid out by the constitution on the internet? How do you even protect, or worry about protecting, something you personally had no idea existed?

With all this hype about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), Google was the first company to take a full half-step towards an innovation in privacy policy philosophy and data protection. Additionally, Google was one of the main opponents to these bills, and I even signed the “Be heard” petition on Google.com during the internet blackout. The vague wording of the bills allowed for interpretations, much like lawyers get paid big bucks to re-interpret the constitution to aid in their cases one way or another, that could completely violate someone's civil rights without due-process of the law.

As I'm sure you've heard in the news, Google has released a fully revamped privacy policy that spans all of it's brain-child entities treating them all (maps,news,YouTube,BlogSpot) as one single application so to speak. The policy also has less cumbersome language throughout, which aides in providing transparency of intentions. The merging and rewording of the privacy policy brings up an interesting notion that transparency in legal documents should be a welcome thing, not something that is stigmatized. 

Yes, so they have a ton of data that is essentially one lump-sum of everything you do that involves Google, but they always have had that data. It's not like the existence of this data is all of the sudden, it's just being openly told to our faces now.  This is a huge step forward in my opinion. It is most welcome in this internet world we live in where checking the box that says “I accept these terms” is almost as reactionary as swatting at a buzzing mosquito, regardless of what you just agreed to. It could be stated so vaguely you don't notice, but you could have just signed away the rights your first paycheck or years salary or invention patent by checking on one tiny little check-box control! I think the point I am trying to make is that it is important to be as educated as possible about things like privacy controls, and privacy forfeiture, and Google is on the road to making that all the more possible, pain-free, and obvious.

From what I have heard through the rumor mill, is that DoubleClick and Google Services will remain two completely separate from one another, which is a welcome piece of information. This means that legally Google will not be able to collect data on your YouTube video viewing history, and cross reference that your website visiting history saved in DoubleClick databases, for example. Google has also taken a steps to integrate controls and capabilities into its products that remind users to take full control of privacy settings. Functions such as Incognito Mode in Google Chrome (Google's web browser) , similar to in-private browsing in Micro$oft Internet Explorer.

All in all, I think I am just fine with the shift in this privacy philosophy, while others view it as a nightmare. I appreciate that Google is at least taking steps to try assure its users that it is not 100% out to own you, only slightly less so. I'm no Law enthusiast by any means, and its affiliated nomenclatures tend to bore me or just confuse the hell out of me. However, I'd still like to learn more about the ambiguities in the language of terms of service and use. Someday, I hope to be a part of a growing company such as Google, and be a part of changing the world through innovation in technology.

Here are links to some of the articles I read:
http://goo.gl/h1ORI - cio-today.com
http://goo.gl/v1U5p - computing.co.uk
http://goo.gl/uoAtC - official google blog announcement

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