Golden Oldies: Google and the Fluidity of Evil
by Miki Saxon
Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.
A year after I wrote this Alphabet was created as the holding company for Google and its siblings and “Don’t be evil” was scrapped in favor for “Do the right thing.” Supposedly nothing changed, but it did open the door to a wider definition. In the years since, doing the right thing for stockholders seemed focused on maximizing their returns in every way possible. This included mining personal data, with or without permission, and selling it to advertisers.
Until now, money seems to have acted much like Holy water, eliminating the taint of evil from the acts of Google and its ilk. Europe has been fighting, passing laws and working to hold these companies responsible. Now, Americans are waking up to just how much damage Google, Facebook, etc., have done/are doing and saying ‘enough is enough’.
Read other Golden Oldies here.
Did you know that the sixth point of Google’s 10-point corporate philosophy is “You can make money without doing evil?”
But ‘evil’ is a fluid term when it comes to making money.
And if Google is into anything it is into making money.
Take Google Plus. Google isn’t trying to displace Facebook and doesn’t even care if you use it.
That’s not really the point.
Google Plus may not be much of a competitor to Facebook as a social network, but it is central to Google’s future — a lens that allows the company to peer more broadly into people’s digital life, and to gather an ever-richer trove of the personal information that advertisers covet.
Plus is now so important to Google that the company requires people to sign up to use some Google services, like commenting on YouTube.
Some people have no problem being tracked and their personal information being shared to the enrichment of the sharing parties.
To millions of others, stalking in the name of better ad targeting smacks of evil.
Of course, when world domination is your long-term goal you need to keep those definitions fluid.
