Don’t be evil. Apparently that’s the common farewell in the hallways of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG).
“Ok, gotta go, don’t be evil, Eric.”
“You too, Sergei.”
I think that’s how they used to answer the phones: “Google, don’t be evil, how can I help you?”
But it occurred to me one day as I was forwarding an important document via my Gmail account… that a young megalomaniac in training would be smarter to set their ambitions on gaining control of Google, than a country. I’m not pondering if Google is evil, in fact, let me go on record as saying I don’t think they as a corporation are… but what if they were made to be? What if nefarious and sinister forces, even an individual, set their sights on control over this private corporation?
Consider the massive amount of information Google now has effective access to, and control over, worldwide. “But it doesn’t belong to them!” If it’s been on their server, it may as well.
Even looking beyond the colossal search engine and advertising leverage they have, and ability to spotlight causes or ideas at will, no small amount of the world’s financial data is stored in their server farms: accounts, balances, transactions, insider info, not to mention intellectual property, ideas, designs, drafts, documents. This comes from Gmail accounts, Google Desktop, Google dashboard, Google docs, and of course, their network of applications.
I have a considerable amount of a novel in draft in my Google account for a simple reason: I can access it anywhere in case I lose my thumbdrive, or my hard drive crashes. I’ve sent ideas for businesses, ideas for plays and scripts, commercial proposals, all through my gmail account at times when my private hosted email wasn’t available or accessible.
The power they have is the power we’ve yielded. Andrew Grove, a tech giant in his own right, wrote: “Only the paranoid survive.” Should we all be at least a little more cautious with our private data?
And yes, I’m aware it’s not just Google: Microsoft, Facebook, and a multitude of hosting companies also have direct access to billions of pages of private (by that, I mean intentionally kept secret) information and data.
Same rules apply… however, if you really wanted to blackmail the world….
Well, let’s just say Dr. Evil with his pinky to his mouth might just as well hover his finger over a “MAKE PUBLIC” button to everyone’s private data, as he might over a missile launch button. Panic in the streets is still panic in the streets.
For further reading, check out:
- The Media Equation – How Good (or Not Evil) Is Google? – NYTimes.com
- Social Media and War – “Do No Evil” sounds good now.
- Google launches Dashboard privacy controls
I absolutely agree. It’s something I’ve been saying for a long time now. Remember when Amazon had that scandal about homosexuality? Imagine if someone at Google tinkered with an algorithm slightly – almost undetectable, that made “Barack Obama” searches point to links and descriptions about socialism. They have an immense amount of control for a company that really faces no actual regulation.
And that’s the small stuff – the more worrisome stuff is what you’re talking about – massive amounts of personal information. But then again, credit card companies have tons of personal information on us too. As long as they’re making hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, don’t worry. But if there’s ever concern of Google going bankrupt or something like that – that’s when we need to start worrying.
[Blog Post] What if Google became evil? via @twitoaster http://www.briancrouch.com/2009/11/what-...
via Twitoaster
Thanks for your points…. yes, if they did algorithm manipulation, well, there’s Bing and other SE’s: they’d lose in the marketplace. Some smart and savvy people would be able to spot the issue, and expose it.
But the information they’ve already got, even if they were to get no more data starting tomorrow, is Gargantuan. Your point on the credit-card industry: lots of info, and a lot of defacto power too… Experian could pretty much ruin your commercial life if they wanted to. A bad credit rating can thwart a lot of freedom.
“But if there’s ever concern of Google going bankrupt or something like that – that’s when we need to start worrying.” Great point: think of JPM’s control of WaMu… an out of state bank owns a vast quantity of debt and property in WA.
If Google ever went bankrupt as you conjectured (never say never), there’s no telling who could end up reading our gmail. Maybe even a government: foreign or not, YIKES.
BTW, sorry about the comment approval issue, was an oversight, should be able to comment anytime without a wait.