Google Gaffes
If you've been following this newsletter for any length of time you know I like to tweak Google's nose. The fact is, anytime a person or company amasses massive power, they come up against scrutiny and criticism. You have to have a thick skin to be a politician or big company president.
In Google's case, the criticism isn't just due to size, power and influence. This company does a lot of sketchy things.
In a recent Barney's Rubble (clever, eh?) I gathered together Google's most egregious actions and statements. When you put 'em all together it paints a picture of a company that just doesn't care about its users. It doesn't care about privacy, it feels free to invade our homes and MAC addresses through StreetView and parses our Gmail for keywords to sell.
And Google is wholly unrepentant. Newly ex-CEO Eric Schmidt said the Internet simply isn't private -- we should change our names if we are ashamed of what we've done on the 'Net. He also feels no guilt selling ads around content he had no hand in creating. Oh, and his company pays a tax rate that an indigent family would die for!
It seems that Facebook is taking Google's lead: It was recently caught ready to sell all our personal data to the highest bidder.
Do we need new privacy laws or just a government with enough moxie to enforce the ones we have? Make your vote at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/21/2011 at 1:18 PM