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.
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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