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Should you Fear Google?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the no-more-than-anybody-else dept.

Ponty writes "Google-watch.com is presenting a list of nine complaints about (almost) everybody's favorite search engine. Some of the salient fears are "Google has no data retention policies. There is evidence that they are able to easily access all the user information they collect and save." and "Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency." The concerns seem like paranoid hand waving to me, but maybe I'm not paranoid enough."

7 of 554 comments (clear)

  1. Google is becoming the global memory... by ites · · Score: 5, Interesting
    In which everything that has been recorded will find its way into Google's caches. Today: every web page in existence, every newsgroup article ever posted (but where is that ABEPB cache, I wonder?), tomorrow every click you make, every step you take.

    I think paranoia is not an extreme reaction, because although Google has been exemplary in their behavior so far, such a centralization of information will, one day, become a target for malicious groups.

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  2. Why they are WRONG by NETHED · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. So disallow cookies! It works fine with out them.

    2. Google uses that statistical information to improve thier search algorithems.

    3. What are they talking about?

    4. Would you share the reason why your search engine is 100X better than the next runner up?

    5. That is the DUMBEST reason ever

    6. The Google toolbar TELLS you it is spyware, multiple times, and gives you the option of NOT participating.

    7. The Google cache is just as illegal as the cache you have of the site on your computer. Except that they are using THIER bandwidth to provide a service, for FREE.

    8. Google is the best search engine out there, come up with something better and someone will make fun of that.

    9. Ok, maybe THIS is the dumbest reason ever. Most paranoid too.

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  3. Always check the source by Erik+Fish · · Score: 5, Interesting
    From this article interviewing Daniel Brandt (the man behind Google Watch as well as Namebase):


    We have tens of thousands of these pages indexed in Google. If you don't spend time understanding how the search engines work, you can forget about attracting any serious traffic to your site.


    Where have we heard this before? Oh yeah, I remember now: From every marketroid who ever got in a tizzy because his web site wasn't appearing at the top of the list the way the highly paid search engine gaming conslutant promised it would.

  4. Re:Should you fear Google? by devaldez · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I especially like the quote "Google hires spooks." Perhaps it's because I work for a large company, but I know of several special forces folks here whose old work involved infiltration and intelligence gathering...

    Should I avoid anything that includes "spooks?" Obviously I should avoid Minnesota, Utah, and several other states because they elect "spooks."
    (though some *might* suggest that I avoid those states for other reasons;)

    --
    "... but you can love completely without complete understanding." - Norman Maclean, "A River Runs Through It"
  5. Tinfoil browsers .... by watchful.babbler · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Just to add a little context: the proprieter of google-watch.org is one Daniel Brandt, who is almost Biblically ticked off that Google didn't rank his site higher. (To be fair, his site is incredibly useful for those who don't have quick access to Lexis/Nexis.)

    Now, this doesn't necessarily obviate his concerns, but Brandt is a veteran conspiracy-watcher whose obsessions include mind-control projects and secret cults amongst the elite -- and this tendency to indulge in, as Wm. Gibson would put it, "apophenia" is certainly likely to color his view of Google.

    To my eye, his concerns display a kind of parochial paranoia: obviously, we're all aware of the uses and limitations of cookies, none of us want to see the cache (or the Wayback Machine) go away, and his comments about Google's "monopoly" and the "[y]oung, stupid script kiddies" who "think Google is 'way kool'" are just inexplicable.

    Telling, I think, is his concern about Google having a former NSA developer on staff -- I've worked with a fairly large number of former spooks from the NSA, CIA and civilian contractors, and to suggest that having the NSA on your resume makes you some kind of Coder in Black is absurd. But, of course, YMMV.

    --
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  6. Actually.... by friedmud · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually.... I LOVE it when companies collect data on me.

    I guess I am just really weird - but I fill out every opinion poll - and answer every question when people call me asking for my opinion.

    Why?

    Well, mostly because if they are going to get somone's opinion on something IT MIGHT AS WELL BE MINE! And, if I am going to be bombarded with advertising (including spam, and junk mail) IT MIGHT AS WELL BE ABOUT STUFF I LIKE!

    To all you paranoid slashdotters out there this might sound weird. But, really, truly, I have NOTHING to hide - so why worry?

    Derek

  7. Re:Wager your privacy by arvindn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Absolutely. I know it's very unpopular to say anything against google on /., but let's try to consider the matter objectively.

    Google is a company. Repeat with me, google is just a company. OK, right now it is a privately held company, but eventually they are going to go public. When that happens, profits take precedence above everything else. Then you can't be so sure they'll stay on the straight and narrow path.

    Up until now, google haven't been evil. Why? Mainly because it was started by geeks (Brin and Page were doing their Ph.D at Stan in '98), and the tradition continues (See this excellent article). But think of 10, 15 years into the future. Totally different people will probably be at the top. They'll see thing different from google does now. For all we know, they'll pull people's pages off the index because "the information could be used by terrorists".

    The basic problem is that when a single entity has access to such a lot of information, and so many people depend on them, you can never know what's going to happen.

    Note: I'm actually a major fan of google. However, it does not mean that I'll continue to be a google fan tomorrow, or that I don't ask "what if" questions.