Google Owns You

Have you ever considered how much control Google has in your daily life? From your dozens of daily searches, hundreds of emails, image hosting, and more, Google has expanded from simply a search engine to a complete internet solution. And with the announcement of Google TV a few weeks ago, the internet giant is aiming to take over the living room as well.

Now it’s clearly too early to judge Google TV on its own merits. I expect the service will run very smoothly and will integrate nicely with Android and the upcoming Chrome OS. Regardless, Google is beginning to control the entire ecosystem. You wake up to the tune of Google TV, check your messages in android, and log onto your Chrome OS notebook, all through your google fiber Internet connection.

This past week Google announced that they beat the Viacom lawsuit and wouldn’t have to pay any settlement, securing the future of YouTube. Fortunately for the millions of users on the popular social, video sharing website. However, Google continues to have complete dominance over their users. Any monetization of youtube videos goes through Google and for the most part Google inherits control over your videos. Don’t think about easy podcasting support either, what happens on YouTube stays on YouTube.

Google is always collecting data on you. Have you ever considered that Google knows your search trends, friends via email, and location? Well, its true. I mean, how else to do they target ads? Let’s consider two big issues with one conglomerate possessing so much information about you: invasion of privacy and security issues.

I’m not sure about you, but I don’t want anyone knowing that much about me. Nothing good can come from big brother knowing my location and my friends. It is valuable for Google to know that I like technology and therefore show me tech focused sponsored ads but I truly dislike location services. It is just creepy when they show me an ad of a local computer shop. It makes me peer over my shoulder expecting to see a Google camera or spy following me around.

Speaking of email, have you ever considered what happens when you delete an email. Well, when you press delete the message is actually stored on Google’s servers for another six months or longer. In fact, sometimes the message gets flagged and will never be deleted from the Google archives. Do they have a right to keep my personal information indefinitely even though I want it deleted?

No one expects Google to collapse anytime soon but what if their servers are compromised. I mean, if China can hack Google who’s to say someone else can’t do it again and collect your personal information. Think about it, all your personal information exposed to the public eye or worse, to someone looking to harm you. As the old proverb goes, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” The fact that Google is continuing to collect more and more information from us is simply dangerous. No one should have this much influence over our daily lives.

In a different world, let’s say Google does shut-down. Or, what if Google decides to suspend or delete your accounts? All your videos, emails, contacts, pictures, and more are lost forever. I’ve been having some issues with Google as well and the process is extremely irritating. It’s almost impossible to get through to a real person and the automated system is simply useless when you have an issue. It’s not easy for a massive company such as Google to manage all this, don’t get me wrong, but they are simply unable to service their huge volume of users. And to them, if a small percent of users have an issue, it doesn’t matter. A small minority will always have problems so its cheaper to simply ignore those people than it is to offer better service.

I’m not suggesting you stop all contact with Google. At this point, it is simply impossible. But I do recommend that you diversify your online usage. Perhaps upload videos to another service or use a separate email operator. Google isn’t intentionally trying to harm you, but insulating yourself from Google’s power isn’t a bad idea either.