Google Wants To Know More About You But Wants You To Know Less About Google

Image by Charles Haynes via CrunchBase

Google’s executives don’t like when people invade their privacy – but they have no problem doing it to others. Google loves to sell our personal information to advertisers and harvest our personal data indefinitely, but the privacy of Google employees should not be messed with.

I came across this interesting article from Gawker the other day and it describes how Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, hates it when the media focuses on his personal life. Let’s get one thing straight here, this blog is not a tabloid – I couldn’t care less about the personal lives of Google employees. However, I find it hypocritical and ironic that a public figure like Mr. Schmidt gets so angry about details of his personal life leaking out.

Back in the summer of 2005, CNET published an article about privacy and Google. The CNET article included publicly available information about Mr. Schmidt and this apparently hit a nerve with Google. Google reportedly blacklisted CNET reporters for an entire year. You see, if you make Big Google mad then you better be ready for some major backlash.

It’s really interesting to read through that CNET article from seven years ago. You’ll notice how some things never change. Even back then people were complaining about lack of privacy and how Google collects tons of sensitive data about us. The one major difference between now and seven years ago is the trust people had in Google drastically dwindled. Google is no longer seen as the trustworthy and altruistic company – the “do no evil” type of company. Gone are the days Google could do whatever it wanted without much scrutiny. People are on to Google now – the public knows better.

I love how that CNET article ended – “Trust is hard to earn, easy to lose and nearly impossible to win back”.

For more information:

Gawker – click here

IBTimes – click here

CNET – click here

Eli Pariser: Beware Of Google’s Censorship and Filter Bubbles

Eli Pariser is an author and online organizer. He wrote an interesting book titled “The Filter Bubble” about how personalized search narrows our personal view. He gave a successful talk at a TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) event. His almost 10 minute talk last year went viral – it’s definitely something you should see if you haven’t already:

For more information:

ZDNet, “3 ways to disable personal results in Google” – click here

Networkworld, “How to get more honest search results” – click here

ITWorld, “4 tips to control your Google privacy” – click here 

The Telegraph, “Google and Facebook mean that we don’t know what we’re missing” – click here