 "Photo: Candice Yoo | Daily Trojan")
Evil is a relative term. So when Google proudly proclaims its mantra, "Don't be Evil," people tend to interpret it differently. It could mean, "Don't take over the world with aspirations for financial gain." Or maybe, "Don't exploit the computer illiterate." Even perhaps, "Don't stalk clients for unclear reasons." Oh, wait a minute, these are all real accusations against the company. Maybe Google needs a new catchphrase.
For years, the Internet monolith that is Google has been attacked by privacy advocates for its lax privacy policies. Early on, Google purposefully assigned each of its users a cookie - a file stored on a computer that allows websites to track the user's information and preferences - that, unlike the delectable Diddy Riese treat, wouldn't expire until 2038. This means Google planned on tracking each search a user makes, along with his or her computer's IP address (comparable to a phone number), for more than four decades. This information can be traced, sold and even viewed by the government.
In July 2007, Google decided to shorten the cookie's life span to two years after the torrents of negative feedback. The corporation incessantly tries to justify its cookie usage on its blog (yes, it has a blog ...), but the incomplete, dumbed-down explanations indicate that Google is merely attempting to avoid confrontation with its critics. These critics claim Google's cookies and the recent acquisition of DoubleClick, an ad agency that keeps and uses profiles of Google users to target ads, are an invasion of privacy. In response, Google merely sputters off some mumbo jumbo about better, more personalized search results. It has even released explanatory videos on YouTube, complete with a pretty girl and fancy hand-drawn whiteboard diagrams (the Internet is represented by a fluffy cloud).
This quest for personalization is encapsulated in the resounding words of Google's CEO Eric Schmidt, as reported by Financial Times. "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as, 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'"
Thanks, Schmidt, but people are already capable of researching upcoming events and job opportunities, with or without Google and its quixotic personalization campaign.
In more recent news, Gmail - a free, online e-mail service offered by Google - has eaten up the cookie debate. This issue is especially pertinent to USC students given the school's recent adoption of Google Apps for Education, which provides each student with Gmail and Google Apps access.
Gmail supports its massive e-mail storage space with the help of something called contextual advertising. This technology, in Google's words, "automatically crawls the content" of users' e-mails to deliver ads relevant to this information; computers scan incoming and outgoing e-mail for certain keywords they use to target ads. While the content of the e-mail isn't exactly read and sensitive personal information isn't collected, the shadow of Big Brother still looms overhead and privacy activists are screaming bloody murder.
Another disconcerting privacy issue refers to how Gmail is read and sent over an unencrypted session, meaning that everyone, including the government, can easily have access to it. Gmail, however, does offer an encryption option that secures data transfer, but for reasons not at all suspicious, this option is difficult to find.
The Google privacy hullabaloo will likely never end as the corporation continues to gobble up other companies and take over the world. So, regardless of whether Google's methods breach Web surfers' privacy or not, many Internet users remain completely unaware of this controversy storm.
Privacy activists tend to consist of the computer nuts who somehow know and understand the inner bowels of the Internet and who have been following Google since its conception.
As the tech-savvy Generation Y, today's students are responsible for not only what the Internet becomes and who controls it, but for how privacy is regulated. Sounds like a good time to start researching to make up for lost time. Luckily, this is easy to do because all it takes to become a privacy issues expert is to google "Google" - seriously.
The world is becoming increasingly dependent on Google, placing it in a powerful and scary position. A corporation cannot be trusted to remind itself not to be evil with a catchy little slogan. So as a plea to Googlers everywhere: Don't be stupid.
- Larissa Puro is a freshman majoring in print journalism.
