I like Google as much as the next person. They’ve got a great search engine, and a ton of other small wonders – from calendars to picture software to email – which make the world a bit easier. And they’re all free. They’re free for many reasons, but surely one of them is that Google aggregates a ton of data about their users. Data that they mine for money. Here’s the rub: Brother Google is creating as many privacy risks as Big Brother – if only because we give Google so much data which could one day be seized or harnessed by a particularly invasive administration. (To quote my daughter: are we there yet??)
Here’s my thought about Google’s plan to release Chrome – a web browser designed to compete with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Holy shit! That company is going to possess even more information about everyone. And when that awful day comes when “national security” demands governmental access to Google data…
Fighting Chrome is surely tilting at windmills. (Come on Dan, it can’t really be a bad thing. It’s just a comic book!) But somewhere far away, a chill wind blows.