I was working earlier on a post on privacy, then realised I cannot even start to give a proper introduction to it without laying down some facts first.
So, there will be no jumping straight into the subject of privacy, centralisation of the internet, and how politics is affecting the internet as a whole.
Instead, we will take a couple of posts to really define the current state of the internet, also give an historical perspective, before diving into the core of the subject.
How big is Google?
Here is the first short documentary which I wanted to share – and summarise.
This is the work of Dagogo Altraide, an australian film Maker.
(I will be using more of his materials in future post while digging on this topic.)
TL;DW:
Very big.
Google owns :
- Google : What you search
- Gmail: What you say and to who
- Android : Where you live (geo-localisation), what you say (remember “OK Google”?), what you do (which app you open).
- Youtube : What you watch
- Maps : Where you go
- Google docs : What you are working on.
But also:
- A couple of Artificial intelligence companies
- A couple of robotic companies
And also:
- Internet Ballons
- Quantum computing
- Some medical hardware products
- More stuff we don’t even know enough details about
Why should you care?
Even if you don’t hold any Google stock, you should still care.
First, because centralisation and monopolies historically are never in the interest of the end-users. Less choice, less leverage.
Second, because decentralisation of Internet services is what has helped disruption and innovation online for the past 20 years.
Third, because while Google motto was once “Don’t be evil” (and still is part of Google code of conduct) – it has clearly demonstrated over the years that it is closer lip-service than to a real manifesto.
From harvesting your medical records to snooping on your wifi while taking picture of your street, or simply bypassing anti-tracking software without telling anybody, and since they can basically access all information they want on your Android, they do it : ever wonder who see your WiFi password when you save it?
So yeah, this whole “Don’t be evil” thing is more a myth than anything else.
Don’t be mistaken however, I am not ranting against Google here.
I am trying to get the fact – so I can get a better understand of privacy in the 21st century.
And so far, the facts say we have centralised a large part of the Internet into one company and it doesn’t look like a very good sign for the future of the Internet.
Where do we go from here?
In order to better understand the digital landscape as a whole I am going to add a couple of posts on Amazon, Apple and maybe a couple of other companies, and then see how much we can trust them with our data, and if we should even care what they do with this data, and finally see if we have even alternatives to these companies.
As usual, I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.