Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Exactly what Google Knows about

By Karri Owens


It had not been that long ago that a tremendous scare underwent the internet community. The issue had to do with the huge amount of data that can be collected on individuals using search engines online. This large body of info naturally drew the attention in the Homeland Security agencies who will be charged with the job of discovering all they can about potential sleeper cells of terrorism on this country.

The stand off came if the government began to demand access to the search records of all people that use major search engines. When this upcoming struggle for privacy started to come to a head, most of us who depend on search engines both for personal and business research began to get that "big brother is watching" feeling.

It's a tough compromise. We know that the government must have the ability to find and place a stop to security risks that may result in another disaster like September 11th 2001. But concurrently, Americans are tremendously protective with their liberties, their privacy as well as their right to be left alone by the government.

Of all of the search engines have been in the spotlight during that struggle, Google's potential to deal with allowing undue invasion of privacy of their customers stood out as an act of courage inside a difficult confrontation. It turned out that Homeland Security really wasn't becoming "big brother" and was simply researching utilizing statistical data to possibly find terrorist patterns looking engine usage. But many of us do not forget that while Yahoo and others knuckled under quickly, it had been Google who stood up and protected user information rather than immediately turn it over to Uncle Sam.

This stand reflects an extended established business ethic that Google has maintained to become protective of the data it collects about users of its search tools. That protective nature has more benefits than simply building our confidence that Yahoo is a safe tool for all of us to work with. Google indeed has at its disposal a tremendous library of personal information on anyone featuring its search tools. And as the dominant search results in the industry, this potential includes just about anybody who accesses the internet.

The information which can be collected from you and I even as use the internet can tell an interested party a great deal about your interests, what kind of business you enter, your religious views along with your political affiliations. Powerful analytical tools are available to take large volumes of search information and translate that into profiles that would be of great interest to the government and to marketers who would love to manage to target specific populations for sales.

For Google, these records has significant value for them as they fine tune their internet search engine methodologies. They can methodically analyze this data to get conclusions about how their search tools will work and how they should update the formulas that drive those tools to get more in step with how the internet audience is utilizing cyberspace. Yes, this is benefiting from their already dominant position to secure that position to make their toolset even more capable of staying before game. But we really cannot fault Google for making use of this data in that way. That is certainly just good business.

It turns out then that Google's protective posture when it comes to that massive database of search information serves their purposes extremely well. If they can keep this mountain of very specific data secure and proprietary, it represents a trade secret of tremendous value to Google to assist them to maintain their market superiority for years to come.

This is a case in the needs of the market serving people good well. For as Google protects our search information so only it can help from such knowledge, they are also protecting our privacy through the prying eyes of overenthusiastic government departments, hackers, marketing campaigns and in many cases the terrorists who could use that information for insidious purposes. And then we can be thankful that Google jealously guards this data for its own uses because along the way, they are protecting us on the way.




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