Maybe it’s the semi-jaded side of me, perhaps it’s the fact that I like to explore the possibilities of a Jason Bourne-esque conspiracy theory or possibly I occasionally have too much time on my hands, but Google seems to be increasingly hitting headlines with (arguably) ‘justifiable’ new ways to invade everyday folk’s privacy.
First there was the Street View functionality that was added to Google Maps. Y’know, that rather helpful feature that lets you actually zoom right in to street level and see what a particular area looks like. In my opinion, it’s utterly helpful and infinitely awesome, but that didn’t stop a bit of a backlash over the privacy concerns. Google recently responded with a request facility that allows users to have their faces, address details and/or number plates blurred out. While, from my perspective, this is Google showing they are the good guys, the raised concerns over privacy is still one to place in the ponder box.
And then there was the alleged collection of assorted Wi-Fi data which caused quite a stir, particularly in Hamburg where there was an ongoing investigation as to its validity. Apparently, after an audit on the collected data, it was discovered that the Street View cars had collected information about SSIDs and MAC addresses as they did their rounds. Google’s response to this concern was that they had only collected unencrypted Wi-Fi data and were working “with the relevant authorities to respond to their questions and concerns.” This response to another privacy concern inspires a whole lot less confidence than how aforementioned privacy concerns were handled. So that’s another card for the ponder box.
And now, according to this story on the front page of the PopSci website, a German drone manufacturer is claiming that Google is trialling one of their surveillance drones. The fact that these types of drones are used for enforcement/spy/military purposes doesn’t help to paint Google in privacy-respecting colours. The drone is designed to photograph large areas from the sky, either autonomously as it travels or focussed on a specific area.
While the easy solution may be that Google is looking into surveillance drones to complement their real-world image offering on Google Maps, it’s still another con card to add to the ponder box in relation to another potential privacy-impinging measure. Personally, I’d like to believe in the greater good of what Google is doing, but with a few more instances of potential privacy invading advents, I’d be forced to reconsider my tune.
What do you all think? Have they already stepped over the line or are Google’s intentions pure?
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I’m a Google fan at heart - they have definitely made my life easier in a lot of ways… but I don’t really trust any of these great big internet corporations. Wasn’t there some issue with McAfee doing something similarly dodgy? They were collecting and storing private information? I don’t know too much about it… but its not really so surprising. They have access to all this information, and it’s all in the name of security that they collect it, but whatever. I figure I just don’t have anything terribly interesting out there on the internet to worry so much about it. What irks me is those people who think they’re going to be stalked because a photo of them was posted on Facebook. The internet was always going to lead to a lack of privacy… I think that’s just something that comes with the great benefit it provides us.
It seems that so often nowadays we are brushing off or unwittingly forgiving big companies for massive invasions of privacy. The more commonplace it becomes, the scarier the reality is that it’s something that we may well be expected to just get used to. Scary thought.