Google is no stranger to controversy over user privacy violations. Gmail, the company’s email service, faced criticism in 2004 for analyzing the contents of its user’s messages. Despite disclosing this in their policy at the time, the non-subscribers corresponding with Gmail users were unable to give their consent and were often unaware they were being monitored (Electronic Privacy Information Center, 2004). In 2007 the internet giant acquired the ad company DoubleClick, which uses cookies to track what its users look at and talk about online, then employs that information to target the ads you see specifically to your interests (Monyak, 2016). Google Street View employs a fleet of cars that record video footage of neighborhoods around the world, often capturing private moments in people’s lives. Though several complaints have been filed regarding this aspect of the company’s behavior, no lawsuits have been successful in discouraging these actions (Liedtke, 2010). 2012 was a particularly contentious year for the company, which was illegally tracking Apple Safari users and storing data on them, resulting in a lawsuit and millions of dollars in fines for Google (Miller, 2013). The same year the business was widely criticized for creating a blanket privacy policy for all of the platforms and services they own, which allowed them to combine the information they store in each of your accounts into one comprehensive user report, feeding worries about profiling and setting a poor legal precedent for this Big Brother-type behavior (Reitman, 2012).
Despite all of these scandals, Google still remains a fixture in most of our lives. We allow them to see what we look up on the internet with their search engine, where we are going when we use Google Maps, and even when our lights are on and what is on our weekly shopping list, with the recent introduction of smart devices in our homes. Are people unaware of how much of their information is being tracked and stored by the company, or do they just not care? Or perhaps, has Google turned over a new leaf? The stories and lawsuits referenced above are years old, which can seem like a lifetime in this digital age. After all of the heat from the media regarding user privacy, maybe Google has re-written their procedures to better protect consumers. Let’s take a look at their current Privacy Policy and find out.
According to their website, Google, “collects information to provide better services to all our users — from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which ads you’ll find most useful, the people who matter most to you online, or which YouTube videos you might like (Google, 2019).” Sounds pretty helpful, right? The company collects and stores information for its users that includes their name, gender, birthdate, phone numbers, addresses, terms searched for online, videos watched, ads interacted with, purchase activity, IP address, GPS location, and which people you communicate with online. They also hold on to original content you create when using their services. According to their policy, “This includes things like email you write and receive, photos and videos you save, docs and spreadsheets you create, and comments you make on YouTube videos (Google, 2019).”
You can also quickly discover what they won’t do with your information in this document, which includes personalizing ads based on race, religion, health, or sexual discrimination, and they won’t share personal information like your email address with advertisers. The only time “personal” information like your name would be shared with someone outside of their corporation (without your permission) is if they need to do so to comply with law enforcement or to prevent a security threat. But this begs the question, what do they consider “personal?” The document defines non-personally identifiable information as, “information that is recorded about users so that it no longer reflects or references an individually-identifiable user (Google, 2019).” So the fact that I like dogs and rock climbing wouldn’t be considered personal because it would be difficult to figure out who I am with just that information (but easy to sell me a climbing chalk bag with pictures of dogs on it.)
Once Google has collected all of this information, what happens to it after that? Any data collected is encrypted, according to their policy, to keep it safe and protected. They don’t sell any of it to other companies. In fact, Google says, they use it protect their users from things like fraudulent or illegal activity, as well as to better analyze how their services are functioning and being used, and to make your internet experience easier and more relevant to your life (Google, 2019). Mostly, though, they use it to sell you things, via personalized advertisements, geared specifically towards your interests. And that’s not just on Google itself, or the websites they own. According to CNBC, 76% of websites now contain Google-owner trackers, more than Facebook or any other internet company. “This advertising system is designed to enable hyper-targeting, which has many unintended consequences, such as the ability for bad actors to use the system to influence the most susceptible or to exclude groups in a way that facilitates discrimination (Weinberg, 2018).”
You do have the option to turn off certain monitoring features, including these focused advertisements, as well as location tracking. All of this information can be found easily on their website and is written in plain language. They are actually very transparent about it. So what’s the problem?
Just last year Google had to pay the Federal Trade Commission $170 million dollars for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (Singer & Conger, 2019). The video sharing and streaming service owned by the company, YouTube, was collecting data via cookies on children who use the application, including what videos they watched most and their viewing habits. This was done without parental consent, and for the purpose of better targeting their ads to young viewers. COPPA is an important way we protect our children and their personal information on the internet, but Google essentially turned their nose up at it, claiming that their videos weren’t directed at kids, despite the content obviously showing otherwise.
Google has a long history of being rather dismissive of user privacy. In 2009 their CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted to have said, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place (Metz, 2009).” This sort of attitude coming from someone who has access to so much of all of our information is concerning. The American Library Association tells us that, “the right to privacy – the right to read, consider, and develop ideas and beliefs free from observation or unwanted surveillance by the government or others – is the bedrock foundation for intellectual freedom (American Library Association, 2017).” This is one of the guiding principals of our chosen profession, and as such we must fight to protect it. Recently I had to do a project for my Social Psychology class on hate groups, and I did a lot of Google searching for it. Now, in addition to liking dogs and rock climbing, Google also might think that I am a white supremacist who doesn’t believe that the Holocaust happened. And while this will likely never come up as an issue in my day to day life, I don’t necessarily want that in my “file.” Having easy access to the news stories I am most interested in, or clicking one button on my phone to GPS home instead of three (because it know where I live) is certainly convenient, but I’m not sure it’s worth what we are giving up in terms of privacy.
In 2017 Google finally stopped scanning their users’ emails. Though they claimed initially that they did it to decrease the amount of spam in your inbox and not just to generate ad revenue, the bad press finally put an end to the practice. But trust me, they have plenty of data still to go on. According to NBC News, “The extent of the information Google has can be eyebrow-raising even for technology professionals. Dylan Curran, an information technology consultant, recently downloaded everything Facebook had on him and got a 600-megabyte file. When he downloaded the same kind of file from Google, it was 5.5 gigabytes, about nine times as large (Popken, 2018).” It is truly a shocking amount, and while the company claims to be keeping it to themselves and protecting it through encryption, data breaches happen all of the time. In fact, 8 billion people were affected by a data breach in 2019 alone (Leonhardt, 2019). The more information that’s out there, the more at risk you are. And this doesn’t just mean from hackers. A potential leak could lead to discriminatory practices like not being able to get health insurance because you did a Google search for a medical condition you thought you might have, or being skipped over for a job interview because of your sexuality. Someday the government might want access to the information Google has stored to investigate a potential terrorist threat. When Google talks about sharing this information with someone like law enforcement, they use the phrase “if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary (Google, 2019).” My recommendation to them would be to have more specific wording here- good faith seems too open to interpretation. User information should only be shared with a court order.
I understand that most of Google’s services are free, and directed advertisements help to fund access for people who otherwise couldn’t pay for it. And while I do applaud the company for, in many respects, being so clear about what they are taking from us and for allowing people to opt out of certain kinds of monitoring, it seems that perhaps they could take a little less and still remain a profitable enterprise. But in the meantime, educate yourself about where your data is going and how you can stay protected while still taking advantage of all of the wonderful things the internet, and yes, Google, has to offer us.
References
American Library Association. (2017, April). Privacy. Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy
Electronic Privacy Information Center. (2004). Gmail privacy FAQ. EPIC. https://epic.org/privacy/gmail/faq.html#13
Google. (2019, December 19). Privacy policy – Privacy & terms. Privacy & Terms; Google. https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Leonhardt, M. (2019, December 17). The 5 biggest data hacks of 2019. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/17/the-5-biggest-data-hacks-of-2019.html
Liedtke, M. (2010, May 14). Google caught breaking web privacy etiquette. NBC Bay Area. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/tech/google-caught-breaking-web-privacy-etiquette/1868570/
Metz, C. (2009, December 7). Google chief: Only miscreants worry about net privacy. The Register. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/07/schmidt_on_privacy/
Miller, C. C. (2013, November 18). Google to pay $17 million to settle privacy case. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/technology/google-to-pay-17-million-to-settle-privacy-case.html
Monyak, S. (2016, October 21). Google changed a major privacy policy four months ago, and no one really noticed. Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/technology/2016/10/google-changed-a-major-privacy-policy-and-no-one-really-noticed.html
Popken, B. (2018, May 10). Google sells the future, powered by your personal data. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/google-sells-future-powered-your-personal-data-n870501
Reitman, R. (2012, February 1). What actually changed in Google’s privacy policy. Electronic Frontier Foundation. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/what-actually-changed-google
Singer, N., & Conger, K. (2019, September 4). Google is fined $170 million for violating children’s privacy on YouTube. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/technology/google-youtube-fine-ftc.html
Weinberg, G. W. (2018, January 31). Google, Facebook data privacy concerns out of control. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/31/google-facebook-data-privacy-concerns-out-of-control-commentary.html
