I Thought Google Was My Friend.

This is a reflection on two articles I read about Google and other internet providers and search engines.

http://news.cnet.com/FAQ-When-Google-is-not-your-friend/2100-1025_3-6034666.html?tag=mncol

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100094.html

When I read the title of the first article I suddenly felt depressed, "When Google is Not Your Friend." I love Google. I go to my friend Google when I don't understand what a class textbook is telling me, when I want a new haircut, to find movie times and any other information I could want. I have two Gmail accounts which I enjoy because of the programs like Google Documents and also for my fun personalized layout. When I'm not around a computer and need the phone number or address of a business I call 1-800-GOOG411 and they give me all the information I need. Basically I'm a Google junky.
The article talked about all the person information Google carries about those who use it. I don't mind if someone knows what words I use to search. I'm not into porn or how to make bombs so I feel like I have nothing to hide. What is scary to me is that Google also has access to my name and other personal information that could fall into the wrong hands or can be requested by a court at any time. If I want people to know my personal information I will tell them, otherwise I would prefer they don't know. Another thought that has always scared me is government watching over citizens every move. I thought that this government was set up so the people could be the watchdogs on the government and not the other way around. What the government does should be out in the open for the people to see. Any government of secrets and lies that are controlled by a few men seems ripe for corruption and scares the heck out of me.
The articles listed a couple of Acts meant to protect rights of individual and media but they all seemed out of date with the constant technology advances. They were the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Both articles talked about the need for revision but also assured that like most legislation it would take time and that the Bush administration probably wouldn't want their freedom to spy taken away. Maybe the Obama administration won't mind if they can't spy as much.
The second article talked more about the fight between telecommunications companies over the internet. I never knew their was tension between the companies. I don't know how I feel about the controversy. I can understand the stress of the owner companies who see their bandwidth being used up by Google. But, I don't want Google to become slower and my least favorite search engines become faster. the jury is still out on this one.

-Melanie Fenn