Google offers a lot of free products to the public. Note that the word free is in reference to
money. Individuals can use products such
as Google Chrome, Gmail, Google’s search engine, and Google Analytics for no
financial cost. However, almost everyone
knows the phrase nothing in life is free.
This is true when looking at Google products. Google is in business to make money and does
a good job with this objective. The
company made $17.7 billion in revenue for just the first quarter of 2015. They make money through a few avenues but
their main profit category is advertising.
Google offers pay-per-click ads to companies which contributed
approximately 67% of the company’s revenue (Google Q1, 2015). How does this all tie back together? People are paying Google with information
about themselves to use Google’s products.
Google can then use this information to improve its advertising strategies
for companies to use. However, the way
Google can use the data it collects is concerning to some individuals. Can a company be trusted with so much
information?
Is Google being
ethical?
Google takes ethics very seriously. The company has an Ethics & Compliance
team that works with outside counsels to ensure it’s acting in a proper way
(Transparency, n.d.). In fact, the
company was awarded as one of the World’s Most Ethical Company’s for 2015 by Ethisphere. They were
1 of 132 companies in the world that received this award and the only company
in the computer services category (World’s Most, n.d.).
This doesn’t mean everyone thinks Google always acts in an
ethical way. There are still a lot of
concerns around the company’s behavior.
First, there are rumors that the ethical board was created due to a push
by DeepMind. This was a company Google
acquired that does work related to artificial intelligence. If Google didn’t truly want this board,
questions could rise if they will listen to the board’s opinion. The other concern for individuals comes from
a law perspective. The board can ensure
Google acts in an ethical way towards the law.
However, the law doesn’t have comments on a lot of new technology and
therefore, Google could be working on a lot of topics that the law hasn’t been
created around (Selinger, 2014).
Therefore, people need to understand the concerns and form their own
opinion on Google’s actions towards ethics.
Privacy
Did you know that Google collects information when you use
its services? If you don’t, you should
know this information.
Do you know why Google collects your information? You should know this as well.
If you are concerned about Google’s actions when you use
their products then this is information you can easily obtain. It’s located on Google’s website under its privacy section. The issue with privacy concerns shouldn’t be
with people using its products, instead it should be with those that are
effected by products they don’t use. One
example is a link from Google’s search engine to information about a certain
individual. One side of this case is that
people have the right to be forgotten and they shouldn’t have unwanted
information on the internet. However,
this isn’t an actual law. The other side
could argue that people have the right to public information (Floridi,
2014). This is a hard privacy topic as
the law isn’t always clear on all issues.
With the law vague on the topic, this could turn into an ethical debate
as well for the company.
Security
Security is a topic of concern across the internet. Google provides information related to its
safety like any other company trying to ease the concern of users. There is a lot of information on Google’s
website about the company’s policy, how to report concerns, and actions to stay
safe. In addition, in 2014 Google went
public with some of its security audits so others could see the level of
protection Google provided (Rosenblatt, 2014).
This doesn’t mean Google doesn’t have security issues. Last year the company saw 5 million Gmail
accounts get hacked (Hill, 2014). Every
company has security issues to resolve but Google certainly has the money and
staff that goes towards trying to stop security issues.
The concern is if one company has so much data on an
individual, it only takes one security breach to cause a lot of issues. However, this is true in a lot of
industries. If a security breach happens
on a banks website there is a lot of concern related to the information available. There is a certain trust factor users give
companies when using their websites.
Google is no different in this area than a lot of other companies.
Why Google gathering
data is a good thing?
People and companies both benefit from Google acquiring our
data. From a company perspective, they
are able to target ads better to connect with its audience. In addition, Google is helping companies
understand its marketing budgets from a new perspective. This includes providing data for cross device
users and tracking the impact of online ads to in-store visits and purchases. This information wouldn’t be accessible
without Google having information across multiple products that individuals
use.
From an individual perspective, the biggest positive is
around the use of Google products.
Millions of people are using Google products for everyday tasks at no
monetary cost. These products improve
our everyday life and many of us are dependent on these products. The other positive comes from an advertising
perspective. People click on online ads
everyday with the expectation of the ad helping them get to a final destination
whether that is finding information or making a purchase. If companies have more information on
individuals, they will be able to customize ads to help users get to their
final destination quicker. This saves a
person time and aggravation.
Alternatives
If you are concerned about Google having your data, avoid
them. An article posted on eCloudBuzz
stated that the most popular Google products are the Google Search Engine,
Google Chrome, and Gmail (Biswal, 2015).
Many of us could think of alternative products without even looking it
up. If you are having trouble thinking
of different products, you are probably a Google advocate. However, below are some alternatives for
reference.
Conclusion
Google is not the perfect company. However, they provide products that are used
by individuals every day. I read a few
articles that said the option to not use Google products is unrealistic. This is due to the fact that the company has
provided some of the best products available.
People have to understand the company doesn’t do this for free. Instead, it takes information as payment
which is an agreed compensation when users interact with the company’s products. This information is needed to continue
building advancements in the industry.
For this reason, people should be fine with Google taking charge and
using their information to make their life easier.
References:
Biswal, R. (2015, March 4). Top 16
Most Popular Google Products And Services - eCloudBuzz. Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://www.ecloudbuzz.com/most-popular-google-products-services/
Floridi, L. (2014, September 16).
Google's privacy ethics tour of Europe: A complex balancing act. Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/16/googles-european-privacy-ethics- tour
Google - Answers about Privacy and
Security. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from https://privacy.google.com/
Google Q1 Earnings: Ad Revenues Post
Growth Once Again. (2015, April 27). Retrieved November
29, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/04/27/google-q1-earnings-ad-revenues-post-growth-once-again/
Hill, K. (2014, September 11).
Google Says Not To Worry About 5 Million 'Gmail Passwords' Leaked. Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/09/11/google-says-not-to-worry-about-5-million gmail-passwords-leaked/
Rosenblatt, S. (2014, August 27).
Google goes public with security audits to ease corporate concerns. Retrieved November 29, 2015,
from http://www.cnet.com/news/google-goes-public-with-security-audits-to-assuage-enterprise-concerns/
Selinger, E. (2014, February 3).
Inside Google's Mysterious Ethics Board. Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/privacynotice/2014/02/03/inside-googles-mysterious-ethics-board/2/
Transparency. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 29, 2015, from https://www.google.com/publicpolicy/transparency.html
World’s Most Ethical Companies –
Honorees. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://web.ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/
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