Face it. We all love Google. Their search engine is the best there is on the Internet. While there were other search engines before it, Google made us all feel like we had just stepped out of the dark ages of the Internet, making every nook and cranny accessible to the masses in a smooth, clear and easy manner.
Then, along came Gmail, Google’s answer to email, and everyone clamored for an invite, despite the questions of the possibility of invasions of privacy. While most concerns have dissipated, as time goes on, and Google delves into the deeper depths of the Internet, those privacy fears loom once again, creating problems for everyone that might be touched by the hand of Google.
With the advent of gmail came AdSense. We see them every time we access google.com and search for something or whenever we check our gmail. Now, Adsense will start popping up on Google Maps. Although Google says that you will have the ability to turn them off, why is it necessary, again, to have text ads popping up all over the place when people clearly do not want them.
The technology appears to be the fruit of Google’s 2006 acquisition of Neven Vision, a company that had developed techniques for facial recognition in photos. “Neven Vision comes to Google with deep technology and expertise around automatically extracting information from a photo. It could be as simple as detecting whether or not a photo contains a person, or, one day, as complex as recognizing people, places, and objects,” wrote Picasa product manager Adrian Graham on the Official Google Blog last August.
Google has also taken the spying one step further with its street view of Google Maps. At first, one thinks that this is a rather cool feature to have, with people making lists of their top 15 google street views. Then, you think about the fact that you did not give permission to be spied upon and it feels altogether creepy that it’s so easy to have a look at what your neighbor is up to today. With the inclusion of mapplets, you can also make a profit with the creepy street view.
Now, however, Google has turned into the stalker online. Facial recognition has been implemented into its image search. Combine this with the controversy over Google wanting your personal information, including your medical history and your anonymity just decreased a little bit more. If you’re already using Google’s other online applications, such as their toolbar, calendar, or Google Apps, chances are Google already has a nice database on you.
Are you scared yet? Because you should be. It is true that there is a lot of information about an individual online, solely by the person surfing around and commenting in various forums on the Internet. However, at the moment, they can be camouflaged by proxies, various user names, and simply by the information not being compiled into one place.
While I used to be a huge fan of Google, I have grown weary of their growing intrusion into my online life. I have begun migrating off gmail and onto secure, encrypted email. I do not use any of their other online programs or applications, other than the basic search at google.com. I fear that Google will become the ubiquitous computing of the future, fighting with, or along side, Microsoft for domination of collecting data on individuals that it should never have. I hope that I am wrong, but I am not going to wait to see if my fears become reality. I value what privacy I still have and Google, once my hero and savior, has become the bully I avoid at all costs.
