Every business needs to generate some form of revenue to stay afloat, but the methods of generating that revenue are what many of us dislike about the business of online advertising. The area in which it is OK for corporations to mine for a users data is gray at best. Personally, I have no problem with Google searching my emails for relevant keywords that can be matched to ads. As long as the ads don't interfere with the sites usability, it is fine with me.
This quote is from Google's Gmail Privacy Page:
"Google does not and will never rent, sell or share information that personally identifies you for marketing purposes without your express permission. No email content or other personally identifiable information will be provided to advertisers. We provide advertisers only aggregated non-personal information such as the number of times one of their ads was clicked."
Google is still pushing the limits of privacy, figuring out what the public is comfortable with sharing and what is taboo. Until the public pushes back, they will keep mining deeper into our lives for whatever trivial data is seen as gold to advertisers. Google may be playing Big Brother through their methods, but at least the company has been fairly transparent about their practices.
You say you don't mind Google searching your emails for advertising info as long as it doesn't affect usability. What if that means Google storing your information longer? Or even forever? That would mean it's more easily accessible when who-knows-what might be happening. Extreme example: a hostile regime takes over the U.S. and decides you should be jailed for any negative references to the government in your past emails. It just seems like a bit of a slippery slope to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Google is pushing the limits of privacy, but I think that's okay. The internet is so young, and privacy is still such a challenging subject, that it's only fair to expect things to evolve naturally. I agree that Google has been mostly transparent too, but I think we should keep pressing them to make sure things stay that way.
icebergtheorist,
ReplyDeleteAnyone with Gmail must accept that Google is keeping your emails indefinitely, whether they are searched or not. That is a 'feature' Google has added.