Sergey Brin on Google, Facebook and The Evil Empire

The owners of Google are in the limelight again, as Sergey Brin speaks out on the future of the internet.  The original article is HERE, from Yahoo! Finance.

Basically, Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google says he’s worried about the future of the internet.  He makes a good point that there are governments as well as corporations that are working for control of information. The internet, as it is now, pretty much allows information to flow freely.  Unfortunately that doesn’t jive with media corporations who are trying to get a handle on internet piracy.  And that doesn’t swing with governments who want to know who’s saying what…where they said it…and to stop them from saying it again.

While there are obvious examples like pretty much all of Asia, The Middle East, and Africa where governments exercise overt control over what can and can’t be said on the internet, The West is not 100% innocent.  I’ll agree that there needs to be some kind of regulation of the internet to stop the perverts and criminals from taking it over, but where we draw the line on protection and privacy often ends up in a gray area that no one can agree on.

In the article it was mentioned that Facebook was contributing to the ominous future for the internet because of their refusal to share information about their users.

What?

That bit didn’t make any sense to me at all!

Good job Facebook. Why on Earth would I want them to share statistics about what I do on Facebook?  If I’m missing something, please tell me.  A walled garden? Yes please, thank you.

I like Google.  Their search engine is great, and I can see that they’re really trying to change the internet for the better – more information, that’s easier to find, and more accurate.  Kudos.  But as far as privacy is concerned, they’ve got a lot to work on.

I don’t have much to hide, but as you might be able to tell by the them of this blog, my privacy is important to me.  Do I really want my G+ profile linked to my FB account linked to my Twitter account, linked to my G+ history, linked to my search history, linked to my ISP and IP address and Gmail account and personal phone number (remember that confirmation text when you made your Gmail account).  Plus all of this is connected with what you buy, what you click, and who knows what else.

I don’t know the answers.  I want a free and easy to use internet.  I want accurate search results and easy access to my accounts.  But I also want to know that I have the choice to be just some guy on the internet, and not have my identity digitally recorded every time I click a mouse.

Conclusion

Honest, the Facebook comment struck me as weird.  It kind of took the power out of his original statement and made it seem like Google is mad that FB won’t share statistics.  Now you can see why there’s a need to use an anonymous VPN service.

The Guardian has a equally skeptical take on Sergey’s statements HERE.

BTW, you might want to check out some of the comments. They’re pretty funny. Apples patent on iSlaves? Lets hope not.

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