Google = "Big Brother" = Really Bad Idea For Google (are you listening, Big Bro?)

So likely you have heard about the latest brouhaha over Google changing its tracking policies.  It now will combine all your data and you have no ability to opt out.  Rather than opine on the menacing feeling I get from this Big-Brother-esque maneuver, I'll leave that to others.  You can check out these two articles on the WashingtonPost.com about the backlash and about the specific changes.

I'll reserve my comments to the following three (Listen up, Googie!):

First, the issue for me is not that Google is making their own rules as they go along.  These are THEIR products and I believe THEY have the right to do with them as they see fit.  If I don’t want to use them, I can cancel them (or never sign up in the first place.  I read the "fine print" and it bothered me, but I signed up anyway.  How much did YOU read before you clicked the "I have READ and AGREE TO..." button?)  To bellyache about the freebie someone gives me and I have agreed to use on THEIR terms is ridiculous.

Second, having said that, the issue I have with this is it exposes Google’s complete hypocrisy.  Do not tell me your mantra is "DON’T BE EVIL" and then expect me to swallow terms that increasingly echo something out of Orwell’s “1984.”  Do not tell me you are "helping" when I have no freedom to say "No thank you."  Do not try to convince me you are my "friend" when I cannot tell you, "Leave me alone right now." or "I do not want to talk to you about that." or "I don't want to share that secret with you."  It is the height of hypocrisy.  I would be much more satisfied with a simple, "We are Google.  Resistance is futile!" then all of the phony baloney platitudes and blatant lies.

Third, I believe ultimately this is a foolish business decision for a brand that has tried to portray itself as the “Don’t Be Evil” anti-Microsoft.  Most people who are flaming Google right now are just blowing off steam and will go right back to using the products they are addicted to.  And Google knows this.  It is not going away anytime soon--it has integrated itself into modern life too deeply (though the Netflix/Quiksterfiasco should be a warning to any modern corporation: Upend the rules of the game at your own peril).  Yet I believe ultimately these kinds of decisions will hurt Google, because they erode the "benevolent superpower" image that it has meticulously tried to craft and even more importantly, these kinds of decisions leave openings for other competitors who market to (as Google once did) the "leave me alone and let me do my own thing" crowd.

Don’t think it’s possible?  Remember, just 12 short years ago Google was that new website nobody had heard of.

Here's hoping the "next great thing" learns these lessons.  And here's hoping it comes along very, very soo[**blurk** Blog terminated for "technical" reasons.  Please read Blogger.com-aka-another-tentacle-of-collective's  "We owns your privacy and security policy" section MXLII, subsection QQQ, paragraph 176, Sentence cxciii, sub-sentence .76984g for more information.  We are confident it's in there somewhere.  Thank you. Signed, Your Benevolent Overlord, GOOGLE]