Big brother is Google

One reaction is to diversify: Hotmail instead of Gmail, MapQuest instead of Google Maps, AOL Instant Messenger instead of Google Chat ’ though that would mean losing the accumulated benefits of linked services. Another reasonable response is to focus efforts on improving our (new) media literacy so that we’re more mindful of how much even free stuff can still cost. If we don’t force ourselves to be aware of those trade-offs, we risk stumbling into an increasing dependence on yet one more company that’s too big to fail.

From Google Everywhere by Nancy Scola in The American Prospect.

Google pretty much runs my life right now, and considering this recent Buzz fuck-up, I’m not okay with that. Facebook’s handling of privacy and user data issues are precisely why I avoid it. Now that Google is trying to out Facebook Facebook, I might go in the same direction.

Trading privacy for convenience is not something I oppose. Hell, Amazon has an 11 year search and purchase history on me and does a pretty effective job of getting me to buy more stuff because of it.

I had few problems with GMail at first because the targeted advertising is automated. But I am not a fan of articulating every social connection I have in public. Yes I am on Twitter, but it is a mostly a mix of people I know, people I sort of know, and people I don’t know at all. My email connections are different because they contain information about connections to people that I have not otherwise articulated in public and connections that are very loose. That’s Buzz’ fatal flaw as far as I am concerned: it assumes a lot of things. Sometimes that’s good because it assumes incorrectly — it obfuscates. And sometimes that’s very bad.

That Google made Buzz opt-out shows either stupidity, callousness, or arrogance. Not cool with any of the above. It’s encouraging that they’ve since made it easy to opt out. But I think the original decision is a sign of the decision-making culture at Google. My advice is to use Google services carefully.