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Google and the Market
This article was originally sent in an e-mail as a response to a warning about Google’s “darker side” published on Google-Watch.org.
This is the eternal “problem” of technology, as well as science. It is supposed to make our lives easier and bring our ideas into action in a more powerful manner. But it can at the same time be used to oppress us.
Nuclear technology provides a great way of producing energy for warming our homes or keep our machines running, but it can also be turned into A-bombs. Information technology provides a great way of making fast and easy transactions and keep contact with people all over the world, but it can also be a powerful tool for government surveillance.
The Internet, as well as other information technology, provides a great globalized arena for quick and anonymous contacts. But since it is technology, all transactions can be traced. All Internet servers (hubs or nodes) are forwarding small packages of data, which are fitted together in your browser to show a web page, or your e-mail client to show an e-mail. But the packages are also cached in each server, and supervised. And all packages include information on where to go, and from where it came.
The globalized and “anarchic” Internet is our best ally in our fight for freedom, but it can also be our worst nightmare. Our greatest hope is that the market is always quicker and more imaginative than the government (including all control freaks and organizations like Google). Because of this, we can appreciate Internet and information technology. Otherwise, it would be disastrous. (But on the other hand, if the market was not superior to the government there would be no technology...)
Google, like other companies, are eager to follow laws and regulations. Thus, they supervise whomever they can to see whether this customer is a source of illegal material or illegal actions. Also, since its service can be hacked and used to forward oneself (in a way not intended by the service, e.g. to elevate one’s own site in search results) Google needs to “protect” the way their product is intended to work. And because Google is ever changing its service for the better (faster, more accurate searches), they are saving statistics to help the development team. This information can of course be used in a bad way; it can be used to hurt people.
If the risk outweighs the benefit, I believe the market will retaliate. And the market’s retaliation is merciless. If Google does not continuously work with ensuring the users’ privacy, I believe they will be crushed.
Google-Watch.org is the perfect example of how the market is self-cleansing. Its organization is spontaneously set up to supervise the supervisor. And its aim is to inform the public (i.e. the Google users), thus providing information about what really is--for the market to act upon.
Google’s surveillance and caching seems to be too much, and its habit of punishing certain users without notice will most likely be punished. What goes around comes around. Search engines come and go, there are a number of projects currently working on developing search engines more powerful and accurate than Google. They will probably learn from the mistakes, and be better--both technologically and privacy-wise.
As long as the Internet is not government-controlled, I see no problem with private surveillance. It will always be reported to the “masses” and the market will always retaliate if it is “too much.”
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