In a world where people are becoming complete
narcissists, sharing every intimate detail about their personal lives with the
entire world via social media, issues such as privacy, security, and ethics
have become very controversial topics. People willingly tell the world their
date of birth, where they live, their marital status, their interests and
hobbies, where they graduated from school, when and where they are going on
vacation, etc. In fact, many people prefer to tell the world where they are
every second of the day by “checking in.” People feel obliged to share with the
world what they ate for dinner, what song they are currently listening to, or
what movie they are watching. People are doing this just for fun, but there are
companies out there in cyber space that are paying close attention, and using
this information to help other companies more efficiently market their products
to you. What company am I talking about? I will give you one guess. That is
right; you got it… Google! The internet information giant always has its eyes
on you, and it is ALWAYS collecting your information and selling it to third
parties, or using it to their own advantage to improve the quality of their own
products. People seem to feel comfortable willingly sharing their info when it
is on their terms, but once they know they are being watched and this info is
being collected, it is a whole new ball game. The truth is it makes many
consumers uncomfortable. Is this marketer’s dream every consumers’ worst nightmare?
There are a few different points of discussion
regarding this topic. First of all, are people really uncomfortable knowing
Google collects data? If so, are they uncomfortable enough to stop using Google
products? Does the fact that Google provides so much to so many people
(top-ranked search engine, free email service, Google Analytics, etc.) offset
privacy concerns? Are people willing to stop using Google services because of
these issues? Do privacy and ethics issues really serve as a threat to such a
giant in the digital world?
In today’s outspoken world, it is obvious that
things have shifted from company control to consumer control. Consumers today
have more power than ever when it comes to branding. This is because social
media has given a voice to the consumer that can literally be heard around the
world. Companies no longer have room to spew marketing spin and not follow
through. Consumers are looking for truth, authenticity, and transparency. They
want to support companies they know are ethical and stand on good moral ground.
Google is no different in this regard. Consumers want to know they can trust
Google with their information. So, do they? Well, back in 2008, 2009, and 2010
Google made it onto Ethisphere's annual unranked list of the world's most
ethical companies (O’Dell, 2011). However, in 2011, they did not make the list.
In fact, they have not made the list since (Ethisphere, 2012). So, perhaps the
public, or at least the good folks at Ethisphere, do not feel that Google is
the trustworthy, transparent company they once were, or claim to still be.
It is easy to understand why it can be difficult
to trust Google. It seems like every day they are in the news for acquiring a
new company. We are not even two months into the new year, and Google has
already acquired five companies, including two internet security companies
(Imperium and SlickLogin), and a UK-based Artificial Intelligence company
called DeepMind Technologies (Wikipedia, 2014). In December of last year, there
were acquisitions made every day between December 2 and December 8, several of
which were robotics companies. Google is getting their hands into everything,
and some people are beginning to question whether or not they are trying to
take over the world!
Despite
all this, Google does attempt to appear transparent and trustworthy. They want
to be able to collect info, sell this info, and use this info to their advantage.
However, in my opinion, they aren’t shy about their desires. Last year they
published a public letter to the government requesting the right to be more
transparent with information, claiming they have nothing to hide (Lennard,
2013). As the company continues to grow and grow, it appears that they want to
be seen as honest and living up to their corporate slogan, “Don’t be evil.”
In
the long run, consumers might not like the idea of their every move and all
their personal information being tracked, stored, sold, or used to “manipulate”
them. However, these feelings do not seem to be stopping anybody. Google’s
search engine is the most widely used in the world (Sullivan, 2013). In fact,
in 2006 the word “google” was added to the dictionary because it became
synonymous with the term “internet search.” Furthermore, in 2012 Google
announced that its Gmail service had 425 million active monthly users,
surpassing Hotmail and becoming the largest e-mail service in the world
(Ludwig, 2012). There is also Google Analytics and Google AdWords, which are
both widely used and very popular among data analysts and business owners of
all sizes. Most importantly, all of these services are provided for free.
So,
there are two ways to look at it: 1) Google collects all your data and sells it
and that sounds scary and intrusive. 2) Google collects all your data. They use
the info gathered to better their many free services to your needs. They sell
your data to third parties who then use it to show you advertisements that are
more customized to your likes and needs, and coincide with recent internet
searches you have conducted.
The
truth is that everything you do online can, and is, being tracked. All
consumers should stay aware of this fact when they are doing anything online. I
admit, it can be intrusive to feel eyes on you all the time. However, it is the
price we pay for living in a digital world. Most of us put all kinds of
personal information on the internet. We need to be more cautious if there is
info that we do not want tracked. It is only going to get worse. If you do not
want your information collected, you need to reduce the size of your digital
footprint.
References:
Ethisphere.
(2013). WME Honorees. Retrieved on February 17 from http://m1.ethisphere.com/wme2013/index.html
Lennard,
Natasha. (2013). The dangerous ethics behind Google’s transparency claims.
Retrieved on February 16 from http://www.salon.com/2013/06/11/the_dangerous_ethics_behind_googles_transparency_claims/
Ludwig,
Sean. (2012). Gmail finally blows past Hotmail to become the world’s largest
email service. Retrieved on February 17 from http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/28/gmail-hotmail-yahoo-email-users/
O’Dell,
Jolie. (2011). Microsoft Outranks Google in Ethics. Retrieved on February 16
from http://mashable.com/2011/03/17/microsoft-ethics/
Sullivan,
Danny. (2013). Google Still World’s Most Popular Search Engine By Far, But
Share Of Unique Searchers Dips Slightly. Retrieved on February 17 from http://searchengineland.com/google-worlds-most-popular-search-engine-148089
Wikipedia.
(2014). List of mergers and acquisitions by Google. Retrieved on February 17 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Google
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