Evil

If I were to set up a company whose whole brand promise was ‘no snack foods’ and then I released a range of delicious healthy biscuits, you would think I would have some branding issues. I’d certainly have to reconsider that ‘no snacks’ banner on my corporate headquarters, and perhaps I would have to rethink those 30 second TV ads talking about my anti-snacking commitment.

Well, what’s up with Google then? This company has long traded off the idea that their founding principle is ‘Do no evil’, yet it has recently been found  guilty again on appeal of illegal wiretapping in the US and Europe. For a business that is basically about communication, it’s hard to think of a more pertinent type of evil than stealing person data from customers. And this is far from being the first time they’ve been found guilty in this way.

Think that’s bad? That’s nothing compared to what they’ve done which is ostensibly legal. Even before we think about their relationship with Chinese authorities or the NSA. In particular, look a their attitude to the rights of others over information. I’m not talking about Rupert Murdoch’s information – which he is reasonably peeved that Google has profited so highly from. No, Murdoch is hard to frame as a victim. Think instead of all the millions of photographers who try to eek out a living from their craft. Or just those of use would rather keep ownership of the pictures we’ve taken of our kids.

So convinced, Google is, of the right to access other users’ data for free that they have been lobbying politicians at the highest level to try and push through the orphaned works legislation.

Andrew Orlwoski seems to be the one journalist covering this issue with any clear idea of the implications. Google is, in essence, lobbying that any image on the internet which has lost its meta data (even if it’s really obvious who owns it), is fair game for them or anyone else to commercialise.

And, of course, images which have ‘lost metadata’ includes every image on Facebook and Instragram (also Facebook), the largest photo sharing sites on the web, as well as many others.

Given the out cry that every Facebook Privacy Policy change attracts, why are people not more concerned that Google is directly influencing the highest level of our governments in order to get their hands on our content?