"Freeconimics", Google's "No Evil" and why you have every reason to be worried.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1837
"Evil, is what Sergey says is evil."
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, 2009
Before we start our serious talk about the drivers of "freeconomics" and one of the biggest game changers - the Google, to get you into the right mood watch this hilarious clip :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMChO0qNbkY
So who do you think is paying for all the "freebies" that you get from Google in such a way that enables this company to generate enormous revenues even amidst of the global financial crisis? What are they selling and to whom?
If your answer is: "oh they are just selling advertisements that you can ignore if you want" think again! Google is not just selling your "eyeballs" to advertisers, it is selling You: your bio info, where you live, where you shop, who you vote, who are your friends, your sexual orientation, you name it! And man, that sells good! Who are the buyers? Everybody who is willing to pay the price: marketers, law enforcement, government agencies, private investigators etc. Ask yourself, do you really want some company that the sole purpose of it's existence is making profit from selling that sort of information to know that much about you, to literally strip you out of privacy?!
And how did they get to know that lot about you? You gave all that information to Google by yourself by using their so-called freebies! Who have ever bothered to read the terms of use of Gmail, GoogleDocs, Chrome, Android etc.? Nobody has.
What I am trying to tell is this: first, there is really no such things as "freebies" in this world, second you should be conscious of the price that you are paying for those "free" services and make an educated choice how to pay for them, third you may state beautiful mottos "No Evil" but this is a bunch of crap, when big money talks there is no room for sentiments.
Cheers,
Use freebies responsibly,
Ilya.
2 תגובות:
hey, nicely put!
"You gave all that information to Google by yourself..." - and this is a very important sentence. Each of us has a choice - we can either use Google or not - Google does not tries to "imprison" us - at least not the "hard way" (with contracts and penalty payments)..
There is no "White and Black" in the business world (and I think in world in general..) but continuing your logic - can you name at least
one for profit company that is not evil?
Do you think Amazon is evil? Zappos?
You can make money without doing evil
http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html - interesting to read I think..
Yefim
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