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Google, I’m Starting To Be Scared of You

April 26, 2009 ( 1 Comment )

The other day a good friend of mine took a jab at her ex-boyfriend, yelling, “My god! I mean, his homepage is The Satorialist. How absolutely ridiculous is that?!” The thing is, this comment kind of hit the nail on the head. It is pretty ridiculous, fittingly ridiculous. Then I wondered… what if said friend took a gander at my internet history, the ever-revealing drop-down menu? Would I have something to hide, something she may exclaim insultingly if the opportunity ever presented itself? Probably not.

Ever since the interweb began, I’ve never quite shook the Fox Mulder-ing notion that I was not surfing alone, that somewhere someone sometime my internet conduct was being archived somewhere. My curious, roaming clicks would reveal my character in some inevitable way. I was suspicious of technology. Now it is ingrained in my daily life in so many ways. I order my groceries, pay bills and manage my accounts, sell photographs, make reservations, find recipes, share recipes, shop, research, check the weather, watch videos online… none of these tasks are monumental or special in any way. You do the same, I’m sure. But I’ve been thinking about how significant a role the internet plays in my life and it is starting to make me feel a bit vulnerable.

Whenever you bestow upon someone (or something in this case) a great deal of power, you surrender a bit of your own in the transaction. So who is getting the power? A few years back no one service monopolized my internet habits. But today, I type this using Google Chrome’s internet browser on Google’s blog publishing tool, Blogger. I utilize Google’s file management, Google Docs, use Gmail for my email, Picasa to organize my photos, YouTube to watch viedos, Google Maps to find directions, Google Earth to stalk unsuspecting street view pedestrians out of sheer boredom. The list goes on and on. Add to that their recent discussions with the FCC about obtaining wireless spectrum and their new service that allows you to locate and track mobile phone users like some Big Brother eye in the sky. Eeek! Google is taking over the world… a new world of information that we’ve no prior experiences with. This is all new! I’m scared of the machines getting too much power, like Sarah Conner. I’m scared we are handing it over.
Ok, maybe I watch too many movies. On my computer.
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There are 1 Comments to "Google, I’m Starting To Be Scared of You"

  • jrsimon56 says:
    May 2, 2009 at 9:53 am

    Great post. It is all a bit disconserting. What is it we’re really getting ourselves into?