Stung: Is Google Buzz a sign of the privacy apocalypse?
It was bound to happen at some point, but I never would have guessed Google would be so ham-handed about it.
Google introduced a new social network platform called Google Buzz, to middling fanfare 2 weeks ago. This service takes a 180-degree path from Orkut, which has been one of their few misses (though I hear it’s big in Brazil), being that it is integrated into Gmail and preys on references your contact list to build your community. Automatically. Without telling you. You see where this is going, right?
Almost immediately, a firestorm of protests began, as Gmail users found they were following pretty much everyone they had ever emailed, and they in turn could see everyone you had every emailed. This included sharing private email addresses.
Feeding the Beast
The problem is that Google is still a single-cell amoeba, in terms of of their product line. And the only sustenance it can survive on is search data, which it needs to continually find in greater quantities both as competition from Microsoft Bing heats up and they try to branch out into enterprise applications and mobile devices. So somewhere in the Googleplex, the somewhat rational decision was made to take advantage of this previously untapped source of search data – your private conversations and connections. Was it done on purpose? Absolutely? Should they have given more thought to the potential backlash and possible illegalities involved? You betcha. But it’s like a starving man walking into a deli: reason goes out the window when you’re hungry and staring at 10lbs of turkey breast and pastrami.
And that is the devil in the details with regards to all of the free and low-cost services and applications Google provides. There is a price to be paid, at some point, by everyone who ventures directly or indirectly into the Google sphere. It’s not a coincidence that they’ve now announced plans to become an ISP for mid-size municipalities. Unfortunately, many of them probably won’t do the necessary diligence to understand why Google is doing this (you don’t see Microsoft, Yahoo, Cisco or even Apple in this space) and what they are getting in return. Instead, they’ll be wined & dined (figuratively, unless we’re talking about North Dakota ) and heralded as hamlets on the leading-edge of technology access and innovation.
To their credit, Google has been quick to make changes to address the privacy concerns that have been brought up. But they must have known, seeing the continual genuflections that Facebook has made, what was illegal or at least ethically wrong. Instead, their “Don’t be evil” motto lost out to Nike’s Just Do It.
Once Bitten, Twice Shy
This won’t end consumer’s love affair with all things Google, not even slightly. Why? Because everybody loves free stuff. Rather, the more technically astute will change their communication and networking habits to accommodate the spigot Google has tapped into their private data, providing some reasonableness of shielding, in return for an email account, circa 1990s-style online office applications and free storage to…put more data for Google to search.
