Do no evil!
The Economist asks in its latest issue, “Who is afraid of Google?“. This week’s cover story is on Google, and the editorial poses this question. Interestingly the editorial talks more about who is miffed and hate Google than who is afraid of Google. The word “afraid” is used only in the title and the word “fear” is used only twice in the article.
The fear? Privacy issues at stake.
“Conservatives moan about its uncensored videos. But the big new fear is to do with the privacy of its users. Google’s business model (see article) assumes that people will entrust it with ever more information about their lives, “
I once again would like to quote my childhood hero, Scott Mcnealy of Sun. “There is zero privacy in the Internet. Get over it”
If it is not Google it will be some other service or a collection of services. Google is an easy target thanks to its size and stock price. I am in no hurry to stop using blooger, picasa, gmail, just like million others.
I would like to believe that a company that is founded by two techies and proudly states its motto as, Do No Evil, should be given the benefit of doubt before fear takes over.
[...] I’ve heard an argument that by forwarding an email address to Gmail, you may be violating a social contract not to share their personal conversations with The Google. (Again the whole “fear TheGoogle” thing.) [...]