Google's Fall From Grace
Commentary: The Google Situation
Due to a lack of news today, there probably will not be any Daily Update unless a few more news stories are released that are worthy of inclusion. Because of this slow day, I decided that I might as well comment on a situation that has interested me as of late. Please note that this is an opinion, and any views here do not reflect those of Microsoft, the MVP program as a whole, etcetera, etcetera.
For those of you who do not know, Google has recently experienced a fall from grace of sorts. The previously near-spotless reputation of the company has lately been marred by security concerns about an unreleased service, GMail (short for “Google Mail.”) GMail, which has no official release date and probably won't be hurried up anytime soon, has turned Google into - in the words of BroadbandReports - “this month's whipping boy.” And it's true enough. The beloved search company has made some questionable announcements about security. After the initial raving about its one gigabyte (!!!) storage capacity and its chance of being an April Fools joke (information was released on April 1st - perhaps a successful marketing strategy for generating buzz,) it became clear that the big news would be the security problems. Less than a week ago, a California Democrat in the senate filed a lawsuit to block GMail.
The primary concern lately has been GMail's security. For advertising purposes, Google announced that GMail (currently being beta-tested) would mechanically read the user's message and then append a short text ad to the bottom based on the contents of the message. An email forward about caring for puppies, for instance, might have an ad for Petco at the bottom. At first glance, this isn't a major problem to many people. However, privacy advocates quickly came out saying there is little difference between a machine and person reading it. The organizations argue that they are both a breach of privacy. And, frankly, they probably are.
I am not going to argue that it is impossible to be safe on the Internet, even though it is indeed impossible to be completely safe (of course, without shutting off the Internet or the computer.) The best Joe Enduser can do is run an updated firewall, updated antivirus program, and not do anything really stupid. The perception of Internet security is one of falsity. Every system has a hole, whether or not it is waiting to be uncovered. These are established facts, and in no way rationalize going about installing backdoor servers on your machine, since it will “inevitably happen anyway.” The sad fact is, most users that don't have firewalls will never be hacked. If you never open email attachments, keep your Windows patching up to date, there is a good chance that you will never find the need to utilize an antivirus program. But many machines do get infected, and many do get hacked. It is not an inevitability, although it is increasingly becoming more common; however, neither is one's house burning down, but there is no reason not to have a fire alarm.
By this logic, GMail is guilty of unnecessarily privacy invasion, but most email providers are guilty of it, too. Services with junk mail folders have to read received emails to determine whether they are spam. This can be turned off, but most people do not. Although I obviously don't have real statistics on this, I'd assume 95 per cent of cases in which junk mail filtering is disabled are because legitimate mail was marked as spam. Email is simply not a secure method of transferring information. GMail does make it more insecure, but webmail is not the venue to transmit anything that would cause criminal or legal problems if it was leaked.
The question is really one of subjectivity and preference. Considering what sort of emails you are receiving (and sending to a lesser extent,) would you be willing to risk a small chance of total data leakage in exchange for one gigabyte of storage space? And will those sending you email want to risk it? With twenty-two pieces of spyware installed on the average user's computer, it will be a long time before GMail is the biggest threat out there, but it still does show a mainstream movement toward less security. Google will recover, but will never have a spotless reputation again in the minds of some. A few years from now, though, it is doubtful that many will even remember the uproar over the service. Only time will tell.
Links: For
”The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It's Bogus” - Tim O'Reilly. A well-done article, although the title is somewhat misleading. It is more about the benefits of GMail as a whole, although plenty of security topics are included.
Links: Against
”Gmail Privacy Alert” - GoogleWatch. Although this site brings to mind those old “NETWORK SOLUTIONS IS A BAD COMPANY” pop-up ads with its irrelevant pictures, it still highlights some disturbing aspects of GMail.
Links: News Coverage
”Google's 'Gmail' Under Fire” - CNN. Excellent CNN coverage of the outcries from organizations against GMail.
Links: Other
”E-Mail Ads Can Read Between the Lines” - Curt “Digital Slob” Brandao/Honolulu Star-Bulletin. A funny look at some of the more interesting possibilities of what Google's context-based ads could render.