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Google Says Data is More Like Sunlight Than Oil (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

Google wants to popularize a more upbeat way of describing data: It's more like sunlight than oil. From a report: Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday morning, Google's chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, said that "data is more like sunlight than oil," adding, "It is like sunshine -- we keep using it, and it keeps regenerating." It's a twist on the well-known phrase "data is the new oil," meaning the world's most valuable resource is information rather than petroleum. Like the oil barons who preceded them, Silicon Valley titans such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon have risen quickly to profit from this new resource and even control its flow. And in another echo of history, regulators are eyeing the industry.

7 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. More Like Crack by moehoward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At least to Google, Facebook, and Amazon, data is like crack, not happy-happy-sunshine. They are addicted and act just like any other addict.

    --
    "If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
    1. Re:More Like Crack by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The fact that Google ditched their company slogan, "don't be evil", tells you everything you need to know about Google.

      The only good thing you can say is at the moment of that decision, they were not hypocrites.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  2. Don't be evil...do the right thing by aicrules · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whatever altruistic motto you want to portray, Google, this doesn't reflect that. You're taking an equally lucrative and shady business and trying to make it sound better by marketing it. This is one of the purest forms of evil. Data gathering and monetization of that data is much more like oil than sunlight, and that includes the bad ways. Oil barons, data barons, both are looking for a way to get and control as much of it as possible and are willing to do just about anything in that pursuit because it is profitable. There are people who have abused sunlight as an renewable energy source in the same way oil has been abused to the detriment of society. If you're overt about it, at least people can make informed decisions about supporting you. If you try to hide it or sugarcoat it like this BS attempt, well, that means you are evil. You don't have to sugarcoat good truth. Anyway, I like what google does with my data, but the fact that they are attempting this form of dishonesty makes me reconsider.

  3. If data is like sunlight... by kamakazi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is it that the companies mining it keep their practices so deep in the shadows?

    --
    "Proximity to wonder has blunted our perception and appreciation of it" --Tim Hartnell in 'Exploring ARTIFICIAL INTELLI
  4. Rent seekers by sinij · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All that data would be worthless without underlying "fundamentals" economy. You still have to produce widgets that are wanted by consumers that can afford to pay for it.

    Google and such are just rent-seeking, where they artificially insert themselves between producers and consumers.

  5. Self-Serving Simile by Blue+Stone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Data is not like sunshine.

    Data is not a natural resource, because that data is generated not by a natural phenomenon to whom all have access, it is (typically) generated by people.

    In that sense, data is more like blood.

    Which would make Google and Facebook more like vampires and us, their victims.

    Sunlight, if anything, would be the GDPR and other regulations, shining a light on their activities, which is the last thing they want.

    Doesn't that make more sense than Google's skewed, self-serving analogy?

    --
    Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
  6. Greenwashing by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    is the technical term.