Much ado about nothing

by Amlan Mohanty | February 21, 2012

Gmail, Google Reader, Google News, Google Chrome, Google Search, YouTube, Blogger, Google Alerts, Google Bookmarks, Google Groups, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Tasks are Google products and services that I use on a daily basis.

So it is with little hesitation that I say that Google knows me better than my best friend of over fifteen years. The sheer quantity of information that it has amassed about me over the years (some private and sensitive, some publicly available), would make a dedicated stalker (if I ever had one) stop and compare notes.

Image above, and on article thumbnail is from tangi_bertin's photostream on Flickr here.

For this reason, Google’s privacy settings really matter to me. A lot. When Google first announced its new privacy settings, I had to stop my Google worship for a second and read the privacy policy in full. I had to re-read it to make sure I wasn’t missing something. As this video points out in the most adorable fashion, the following is the crux of the matter, and really where the debate should end:

1. Google already has certain information about me.

2. Google is not storing any data that it didn’t already have about me.

3. Google is merely combining this information.

4. Google is not releasing this information to third-parties.

5. Google is using this information to serve me more relevant results and ads, based on my viewing history and habits.

The debate of course, doesn’t end here for everyone. When I read news reports that the Electronic Privacy Information Center had filed a lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission over Google’s upcoming privacy policy change, asking it to direct Google to desist from making the changes, I couldn’t believe my eyes and was frankly, a little enraged. Here was Facebook, making public my relationship status and photo uploads from 2005 (when I was a naive little teenager, with little knowledge of the dangers of making public on the Internet, private information in instantly reproducible digital form) through its ‘Timeline’ feature, with no notification, and no opt-out mechanism, and the guys at EPIC decided to go after Google for using information it had, to serve me better as a customer.

Yes, I realise Google is free and that if I’m not paying for it, I am the product being sold. That’s how Google makes its money and I would much rather view non-invasive ads about things I like – stand up comedy shows, gadgets, and Twix bars than a bunch of ads about financial investments, stock options, real estate opportunities, and baldness cream, when in fact, I have lush jet black hair.

Of course, there is more to this policy change than mere revenue generation. But why would anyone believe me after I confessed to ‘worshipping’ Google?

So let me give you an example of its practical uses, that too coming from an ‘unbiased’ party – my mother.

A week or two ago, I found the time to introduce my mother to the wonders of the world wide web. ‘There’s more to the Internet then Facebook, ma. There are literally a billion webpages with lots of different content that you can visit.’ And so I began to demonstrate the vastitude and utility of the internet. I first showed her how she could search for recipes for dishes she had just watched being made on television. She typed them into the search bar and sat amazed as she was served results for ‘chicken korma recipes’, from her favourite chef Sanjeev Kapoor, to ‘bhindi recipes’ from the ace vegetarian chef Tarla Dalal. Ingredients were available and the method of preparation was explained clearly and concisely.

And that’s when I went on to YouTube and blew her mind. The look of wonder and joy on her face when she realised she could watch the actual preparation of the dish itself, in video form, on demand, without ads, and most importantly, at her own convenience, was priceless. When I came home from work the next day she couldnt’ wait to tell me of her adventures on the interwebs. But there was one thing that stood out. She said to me – ‘Jo, how does YouTube know exactly what I like to watch? I watched a few videos and then it started recommending dessert recipes, trailers of Shah Rukh Khan films and news clips with pictures from Aishwariya Rai’s baby shower.’

There was a little part of me that wanted to tell her the truth – she was signed into her Google account throughout the day. She had used the search terms ‘Aishwariya Rai baby pictures’ on Google and when she logged in to YouTube, it used that information to recommend a news report about the baby shower.

But it was much more fun to say – ‘Google is evil, ma. It knows everything. Use it cautiously’ (mostly because I didn’t want her to waste the day googling Aishwariya Rai’s baby shower pictures). She’s since moved on and now uses Google News to catch up on her news demands and Picasa to view and upload photos. She doesn’t care that Google is a huge company with the potential to take over the world someday, abusing all the information it has about her. She is just happy somebody finally knows what interests her and encourages it.

Excuse my crude analogy, but Google’s actions are really as if I told my girlfriend one day – ‘Hey, so it seems like I’m slowly losing my memory and I want to jot down all the things I know about you – things you like, funny stories you’ve told me in the past, places we’ve been to, songs we’ve listened to, and movies we’ve watched together. I’m not going to show this list to anybody, but just in case I ever decide to make you a mixed tape, and my memory fails me, I’ll be able to decide what kinds of bands you like based on my list. I can plan our next trip together based on the places we’ve enjoyed visiting in the past and I most certainly will not buy us tickets to the evening show of Don 2 cause I know you hate Shah Rukh Khan.’ I doubt she’d break up with me for invasion of her privacy.

Google has come to be one of my best friends. And as long as they’re not blabber mouths, and make sure to constantly keep me notified about who they’re telling what to, I want my friends to know and remember all there is to know about me. If nothing else, just so they know exactly what to buy me for my next birthday. Is that so wrong?

Amlan Mohanty is a student of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.