Today I saw a program in CNBC called ‘Inside the mind of Google’. And I am afraid. I am terribly afraid! All my online secrets can go public anytime. Well I have nothing to hide! I am an honest tax paying citizen. I am not affiliated to any banned organization. And I am straight too. But then once in a while I have searched google for sizzling stuff. Who doesn’t man? But then if this kind of information lands up in my close circle…well its embarrassing. Even you, my friend is not safe. Your secrets can come in the public too. Nobody is safe…nobody. And this is all courtesy Google, which is arguably the world’s most powerful company. How come most powerful? Well, it deals with data…highly sensitive data. We live in the age of information where knowledge is power. So if I know more than you I am powerful. And Google knows more about everyone than anybody else. So it’s the most powerful. Correct?
Google stores the search ‘strings’ we use. It stores it for 18 months tagged to the IP of your PC. And after than it moves it to anonymous category. So if someone asks Google who is the person in India searching the most for kinky stuff online…or who something else...well Google has the answer. Any question, The answer is with Google! You may shout ‘Hey this is Blatant violation of privacy’. But who cares buddy? The emails you send, the chat you do over Gtalk, your orkut activities, and now the new Google Wave. All are getting stored. And Google says they are doing this for research and fine tuning their codes. So far so good. But what if this data gets leaked or falls in the wrong hand. Till date Google has taken User Privacy very seriously. But what if few years down the line it just decides to change its policy. And any company is not built to last. What then? In the US Google is bound by law (Patriot Act) to share any information about any individual or group if the government demands. And it is also bound by similar laws in other countries. What if the Government misuses the data? Eric, Google CEO in an interview told that Google will share the data with law enforcement agencies if required. The user can be sure that his private information will not be misused. He is absolutely safe. Google respects user privacy. But if the user has done something wrong Google can possible share the info. If the user has done something, the user shouldn’t have done it in the first place itself. Interesting view!
A lot of User rights activists are saying that Google is sharing user data covertly with various companies. Might not be true. Might be true. I am nobody to argue on this. But today when I decided to open a Facebook account an interesting thing happened. After giving the basic information and my email is, Facebook prompted me to add few friends who I might know. It gave a list of 25 people. And I knew each of them. How did they do it? I had given my gmail id as my login email. Did it get all the information based on this email which is again linked with Orkut? How did they access my gmail? What the hell is going on! I have deactivated my Facebook. I will deactivate my Orkut too. I will start writing letters once again. No more scapping and emailing. Pen is mightier than Google!
