Google has bad results for privacy

Black, fearful, comfortless and horrible indeed. Google is taking over the world and the only question remaining is whether it will be satisfied with that, or does it want more?

In just the last several days, we've learned that what began as an Internet search engine has turned into Big Brother.

Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, says he wants his company to gather so much personal information about us that it can tell us how to live our lives.

"The goal," he says, "is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'"

Yaghh!

We've been wasting our time worrying about President Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales and all the other Patriot Act zealots going through our garbage pails to make sure we're good Americans.

No, the real threat to our privacy isn't the government.

It's ourselves.

Many of us are happily supplying Google with everything it wants to know, and then some.

What Google might do with it all could make George Orwell's "1984" look like Woodstock.

Two years ago, Google began a personalized search that asks us to give it permission to take note of everything we do on the Web.

Every click, every search, every topic, every website all stored snug and secure in Google's vault, to do with as it pleases.

Based on all your information, Google will offer you a search that suggests things you should buy and services you might use.

Don't bother thinking. Let Google do it for you.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Just this past Monday, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating whether Google peeling off $3.1 billion from petty cash to buy DoubleClick Inc. violates antitrust laws.

DoubleClick's software enables it to place "cookies" on your computer to track which websites you visit.

This information is of great value to advertisers, which is bad enough for those of us who like to keep such matters private.

But when you think about combining that information with Google's personal profile of who you are, what you eat, what clothes you order online, what trips you like to take and what sexual practices you might fantasize about, it's beyond frightening.

What could be frightening to fans of the National Football League is the idea of a new league threatening the NFL's place atop America's professional sports heap.

Well, guess who's planning to start just such an enterprise?

Yup, Tim Armstrong, a senior Google executive, is one of two men who have pledged $2 million each to get the United Football League going.

It's just in the planning stages, but it wouldn't be wise to underestimate any Google bigwig.

Maybe you just want to forget about Google's assault on society as we know it and relax and watch something funny or otherwise distracting on YouTube.

Sure, but remember that last year Google paid $1.65 billion in stock for YouTube. Big Brother will know what you're looking at on YouTube, too.

Well then, maybe we should just get up off our duffs, turn off the infernal computer and go outside for a while.

After all, if we're not on a computer, then Big Brother Google can't intrude upon our privacy.

Well ... that's not entirely true.

Google's mapping software is so good that it can zoom in on a license plate, and on Wednesday caught an unfortunate middle-aged man in San Francisco coming out of a strip joint.

The poor guy was easily recognizable to anyone who knows him. If he was expecting no one to see him exiting the establishment, he was probably greatly surprised and disappointed to see his visage linked to the ultra-popular Drudge Report, courtesy of Google.

Each day, we lose a little more of our privacy, a little more of our freedom to a voracious business enterprise. The most galling thing is that we are doing it willingly, with nary a protest.

Bill Shakespeare had it right again, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

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Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.