Google: How much power is too much power?

Aug. 29, 2009 - PRLog -- Imagine that your home has been burgled. The police catch the robber, there is a trial. What is the appropriate punishment? Return of your possessions? Jail time? Damages? But instead the outcome is that a judge agrees to allow the robber to avoid jail time or penalties, he says it’s ok for the robber to use the stolen stuff for as long as he wants provided he pays his victims a one-time payment fee for it. And if he can’t track down the victim, he can keep and use their stuff in any way that he sees fit. Would such a punishment seem fair or appropriate to you?

This is how Forbes describes the ongoing litigation surrounding  the deal struck between publishers, some author groups and Google, after the technology giant was sued for the illegal reproduction of copyright materials. The deal has opened a can of worms – and you can look forward to a bitter, long battle – and not necessarily because competitors have commercial interests to protect – but because it raises an even more important question: how much power is too much power?

The agreement Google struck provides it with monopoly rights to hundreds of years of printed works, which it will make available to the public–individuals, public libraries and others–for a fee or subscription. It could also sell electronic copies of books. As Forbes noted, this is not a bad settlement for a company that was sued for violating copyrights.

Apart from the usual suspects with raised eyebrows, that is the Department of Justice, various US state attorneys general and the European Union’s competition commission, this deal has also galvanised three powerful enemies. After all, my enemy’s enemy is my friend.

According to BBC news, technology heavyweights, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will all sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the non-profit Internet Archive, a long-time opponent of Google’s library ambitions. It too is in the business of scanning books, a task which Google now intends to undertake, and has digitised over half a million of them to date. All are available free.

So, how much power is too much power?

While the argy-bargy takes place in courtrooms, let’s take a look at a fraction of the things that Google knows today.

It knows the search behaviour of the vast majority of Internet users in the western world. (It performs around 80% of Australia’s search.) It can even roll out personalised search results  specific to your individual preferences simply because it knows your behaviour so intimately.

It can determine the success or failure of your website business because it creates its own algorithm, which it keeps secret, which governs how your website will perform in search engines. If it decides you’re not important, you don’t rank, regardless of whether your livelihood depends on it. And if you want to call someone to talk it over? Well, you can’t. You can only ring to talk about ads.

Got something you’re embarassed about in your back yard? You’d better clean up your act before Google Earth swings by, records it and puts it on public display for all to see, whether you like it or not. If Google decides to “streetview” your neighbourhood, anyone can see what your house looks like, what colour fence you have, even what car is parked in the driveway.

Many website administrators use Google Analytics as a preferred website reporting tool. This gives Google detailed information about who is visiting your website, how long they are staying there, which pages interest them, where they come from – the sort of information that is extremely useful to an advertising company that wishes to fine-tine, for example, its pay-per-click programs.

If, like me, you decide to use Google Chrome, a lovely little browser from Google, you’ve just offered the corporation another freebie insight into your life. They now know where you go outside of search, what you like and how often you like to go there, what you favorite as a destination site.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Set up a Google account – then you can sign up to YouTube, gmail, software, web programs like analytics… and other services that all share information about you with Google.

How does Google use that information about you? How does it use information about me? I don’t know. Silicon Valley has been concerned about Google’s depth of information about individuals for a long time. It’s amazing that the corridors of power in DC are only just starting to ask the hard questions.

Google is not the little start-up with the do no evil chant – because it’s not a little start-up anymore.  Of course, its behaviour may still be beyond reproach, but ultimately how the company is perceived will be left to the public and regulators to decide.

And it will be left to people like you and I to ask ourselves, how much does Google know about us and are we comfortable that one company has that level of insight?

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About Maverick Marketing: Read the Blog @ http://fionamackenzie.com.au It covers marketing strategy news, views, tips and information to help marketers compete in the new information age.