[ NNSquad ] Re: [IP] Re: Google Is Hiring Bond Traders

There is something familiar here. Even as we may see Google as the epitome of openness they are also in a privileged position. It reminds me of Carl Malamud’s efforts to unlock our legal knowledge from Westlaw and others who have taken control as stewards of portions of our commons. It’s a neat deal – the government gets “free” services in return for letting Westlaw monetize it.

Adam is right – Google’s benign neglect is just an illusion. Yet we don’t expect to see a banner ad saying “The Morning After Pill – you forgot something last night”. We sense there are boundaries and don’t want to know there aren’t.

If Los Angeles uses Google apps and maps for basic services I do not have a choice in whether Google gets to use my information. Or more to the point, our information.

We can consider it a form of insider information – Google gets to see public information in a way that others don’t. It is taking exclusive ownership of a commons. It’s like donating land so the city has a park in return for being the sole concessionaire.

Of course Google is not alone. We’ve seen another form of this in people using their company’s inside information to trade its competitors’ stocks.

And let’s not forget that privateer model we use to hand exclusive control of speech to NaaS (Networking as a Service – AKA, Telecom) companies.

At least in the case of NaaS I can say “don’t do that”. I don’t have a simple answer for Google’s control. And they are far from alone. Think of how the drug companies track the prescriptions physicians write.

From: Dave Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 17:50
To: ip
Subject: [IP] Re: Google Is Hiring Bond Traders

Begin forwarded message:

From: Adam Fields <ip20398470293845@aquick.org>
Date: March 23, 2010 3:31:47 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Cc: ip <ip@v2.listbox.com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Google Is Hiring Bond Traders

Fir IP, if you wish:

On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 10:40:36AM -0400, David Farber wrote:

Me roo.

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Bob Frankston" <bob2-39@bobf.frankston.com>

Date: March 22, 2010 4:50:08 PM EDT

To: <dave@farber.net>, "'ip'" <ip@v2.listbox.com>

Subject: RE: [IP] Google Is Hiring Bond Traders

So what?s what they are doing with all the stuff they know about me?

I?d feel far better if this were arms-length.

Really? What possible reason would they have to do that? Come on,
folks. If this is a surprise to anyone, you simply haven't been paying
attention.

You voluntarily gave Google all of your information for the explicit
purpose of helping them make money so you could collect the free
computing crumbs they dropped on the floor while doing so.

Did you really have any illusions that this was a different
relationship? As far as I can tell, nowhere in the Google Terms of
Service or Privacy Policy is anything prohibiting Google from making
use of the information shared with them for the gain of Google as long
as it doesn't violate their prohibition against sharing personally
identifiable information with third parties.

--
- Adam
----------
If you liked this email, you might also like:
"You're not looking at the iPad the right way"
-- http://workstuff.tumblr.com/post/459204324
"Cooking at home is different"
-- http://www.aquick.org/blog/2009/10/15/cooking-at-home-is-different/
"Bloom"
-- http://www.flickr.com/photos/fields/4449638140/
"fields: @jayrosen_nyu Apropos to gradual intro to the digital ecosystem: http..."
-- http://twitter.com/fields/statuses/10928453700
----------
** I design intricate-yet-elegant processes for user and machine problems.
** Custom development project broken? Contact me, I can help.
** Some of what I do: http://workstuff.tumblr.com/post/70505118/aboutworkstuff

[ http://www.adamfields.com/resume.html ].. Experience
[ http://www.morningside-analytics.com ] .. Latest Venture
[ http://www.confabb.com ] ................ Founder