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Google's Watching
FTC holds hearings on consumer data and ad serving
The average person would be shocked to know how much information Google has about them. Obviously, the $700-a-share search giant archives every search you've ever made. But it also tracks your e-mails, if you use Gmail, and keeps tabs on your use of various other Google programs.
Google is no Big Brother, at least not intentionally. A person's search requests and e-mail are never matched with a real name. Rather, a sophisticated computer program tracks consumer behavior in order to serve up appropriate advertising. If you send e-mails about your favorite bands, for example, you might see ads for their CDs. Harmless, right?
Maybe not. Such systems are becoming more sophisticated, in order to more effectively target consumers. Facebook is expected to target ads based on the information users supply on their pages. And Google will have an astonishing array of information about consumers when it goes into the mobile-phone business. Information is power, and power corrupts.
The Federal Trade Commission is holding hearings on this subject today and tomorrow, according to an article in The New York Times, which is good news. It's surprising that the agency is taking this step, since there hasn't been much consumer outcry. But I think that's partly because so few people understand just how much information some companies collect — and what could be done with it in the future.
Most companies that collect personal information have policies to prevent abuse of the system. But such policies ultimately depend on the honesty of employees, in some cases employees who work across the world for very little money. The government's right to access such information is limited in theory, but it's hard to imagine companies wouldn't fold under pressure. If Yahoo! provided the Chinese government with information that put an activist in jail, can anyone imagine it wouldn't do the same here at home? The companies may collect information, but they should not be allowed to keep it.
Google is no Big Brother, at least not intentionally. A person's search requests and e-mail are never matched with a real name. Rather, a sophisticated computer program tracks consumer behavior in order to serve up appropriate advertising. If you send e-mails about your favorite bands, for example, you might see ads for their CDs. Harmless, right?
Maybe not. Such systems are becoming more sophisticated, in order to more effectively target consumers. Facebook is expected to target ads based on the information users supply on their pages. And Google will have an astonishing array of information about consumers when it goes into the mobile-phone business. Information is power, and power corrupts.
The Federal Trade Commission is holding hearings on this subject today and tomorrow, according to an article in The New York Times, which is good news. It's surprising that the agency is taking this step, since there hasn't been much consumer outcry. But I think that's partly because so few people understand just how much information some companies collect — and what could be done with it in the future.
Most companies that collect personal information have policies to prevent abuse of the system. But such policies ultimately depend on the honesty of employees, in some cases employees who work across the world for very little money. The government's right to access such information is limited in theory, but it's hard to imagine companies wouldn't fold under pressure. If Yahoo! provided the Chinese government with information that put an activist in jail, can anyone imagine it wouldn't do the same here at home? The companies may collect information, but they should not be allowed to keep it.
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14:58 EST, 06.Nov.07
14:10 EST, 06.Nov.07