A recent Washington Post article details Google's latest moves in their ever increasing effort to organize the worlds information. In a nutshell, they are changing privacy policies across their vast product line in order to coordinate user information, drawn from multiple google products (search, youtube, gmail, etc.), into a single profile for each user. The primary reason given for this change is that it will enable Google to streamline their services and add value to their product line by allowing for the potential of benefits and conveniences to consumers who use multiple Google products. An example given by a Google spokesperson on the official Google blog reads as such:
"We can provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what traffic is like that day.”
This news has great implications for e-marketing as well. As our text continues to state, the internet is allowing consumers to be less and less captive to the advertising once put fourth by formerly dominant mediums such as television and radio. A flip side of this is that the internet allows for much greater personalization of marketing efforts. Google's capability to tailor marketing efforts to individuals will be greater than ever before. For example, if you watch a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers videos on youtube, you might have an advertisement for an upcoming Chili Peppers concert show up beside a gmail composition. In this way, Google will be able to increase the relevance of their advertising to individual users on an unprecedented level.
Of course there is the matter of privacy. Some people (especially in Europe according to our text) may be very weary that an organization, even one with as much perceived benevolence as Google, is creating such a detailed and comprehensive profile of each individual depending on how much they use Google products. Given the fact that these changes will be a mandatory part of using Google's products, some people may be turned off enough to cut Google out of their lives all together. On the other hand, such notions haven't stopped people from putting their whole life on Facebook.
As long as Google simply uses this information to enhance their products and their advertising capabilities, I am not particularly concerned about these changes. Although I do acknowledge the fact that it is a tad unsettling to think a company has been able to compile a detailed dossier on you complete with your location at any given time through the use of your Android phone. Come to think of it, Google can probably do a better job getting intelligence on you than most private investigators. The only difference is, you have to allow them to do it through the use of their products. Google, I like your products. Please use your powers for good.
