Google: A Giant Security Camera

Google is used everyday by millions of people for email, Internet searches, socializing, and more but many of these users don’t realize what makes Google so effective simultaneously sacrifices privacy. Google has essentially become a giant security camera. The company is scary because as more and more people use it, the more personal information Google retains in its database. Googlization is a reality; the world has in fact become googlized. Google retains every search a user makes and based of previous searches, personalizes the search engine for every user. Google can even predict what users are going to search. Google has effectively invaded the lives of millions of online users.

Google grows more and more every day. Google started as a green roots effort at an effective online search engine and has since ended any opportunity for a new engine to develop. Google has grown so much that if a site wants any sort of publicity; it needs to jump on Google’s boat. Perhaps the scariest of Google’s broad array of online service is “street view” on Google earth. Users can actually view the street of almost any area of the world. While this provides numerous advantages, it poses equally as many disadvantages.

“Street view” can be great, particularly when exploring new areas and attempting to become familiar with a certain area before even arriving. It also is extraordinarily useful for navigation. However, “street view” is perhaps most useful for potential thieves. For example, a thief can look at the entire Lawrence university campus, check the open hours of certain buildings online (also using Google) and have an adequate idea of the area and where to escape. For instance, the Mudd Library has a few different entrances that can all be seen on street view. A potential laptop thief can easily survey the building to decide when to go and steal laptops. This proves Google’s service’s are equally dangerous as they are useful. Google has a bank of information about virtually everybody and users should become informed to learn how to properly use the web. 

Flickr, the World Biggest and Most Intuitive Photo Album

Flickr is a prominent social networking website in cyberspace that allows users to share photos with friends, family, and other users. Recently, a storyboard was posted on Flickr mimicking major themes and features of the Grand Theft Auto video game series, however, the storyboard was photographed in Appleton Wisconsin as opposed to “San Andreas”.  The story begins with a picture of a girl sitting on a couch playing Xbox. The next few shots have an identical interface to the Grand Theft Auto series but the pictures aren’t computer generated. The photos depict a man taking another man out of his car, beating him, stealing seventy-five dollars, taking his car, and throwing the passenger out of the door. Afterwards, the man walks into the bank with two empty bags and a gun in the weapons logo. The next scene shows him walking out of the bank with two full bags and millions of dollars. The story ends with a girl walking away from the couch with an Xbox controller in the foreground. The story has numerous metaphors, such as anonymity in cyberspace as depicted by the girl becoming the man in the game.

            Flickr is an extremely user friendly website. Moreover, Flickr, is more than a website, its an online tool. Flickr has essentially become a massive online photo album. Personally, I have found it extraordinarily easy to use. Uploading photos, tagging, creating and editing sets all seems intuitive on Flickr, as if the late Steve Jobs played a role in its development. The Grand Theft Auto idea came from groupthink. The crew responsible for “Grand Theft Auto: Midwest City” wanted to photograph a story that parallels the progression of cyberspace, and the idea of having numerous personalities. Developments such as these can be seen in the idea of the story itself. It is a group of kids, rewriting a scene of Grand Theft auto, putting a unique spin on it, and sharing it with the world.

            PBS journalist Jennifer Woodward Maderazo came to similar conclusions about Flickr in her article “Flickr Changes Lives, Launches Photog Careers”.  She describes Flickr as a place where “bad photographers get schooled, mediocre ones get better and some even rise to the top as stars, all supported by an immense, and sometimes intimate, international community”. Maderazo also believes Flickr is more than a social networking site where friends can share pictures. The storyboard “Grand Theft Auto: Midwest City” is simply the tip of the iceberg. Akin to Maderazo’s beliefs, Flickr is a place for experimentation and an online destination for artists to develop their talents.

"Grand Theft Auto: Midwest City" can be found here.

Jennifer Woodward Maderazo's article here.

Corporate Interests Will Destroy the Internets Creative Potential

The culture of the Internet is being drastically altered everyday. The Internet used to have a free culture, one where anyone could express themselves through many different mediums (video, pictures, text, etc…). Lawrence Lessig is a fan of the free culture phenomenon, however, he maintains that corporate interests are destroying free culture. Free culture is slowly changing to a permission culture. Lessig also maintains that “permission culture” is the extreme opposite of free culture. The worst consequence of the emergence of permission culture is the way it affects creativity, particularly in the context of cyberspace. Recent legislation coupled with commercial interests are essentially putting a surveillance system on the internet.

Corporate interests having an affect on creativity in cyberspace is nothing new, particularly when Google comes into question. In winter of 2010, Google announced it was going to build fiber optic broadband Internet connections offering one gigabyte of service a second. Google was going to test the technology in a select few communities at first to see potential ways for users to have a fast broadband connection heading forward. This immediately led Internet Service Providers (ISP) to speculate on Google’s future in the service sector. Google obviously has an interest in increasing the number of users on the web but may attempt to enter the Internet service sector to truly place a monopoly on Google users. The article can be found by Click Here

This move by Google supports Lawrence’s claim. Google already charges business’ to be listed by the search engine and charge advertisers massive amounts to have Google users be exposed to ads at all times. However, if Google could decide who can and cant use the web (and equally as important, Google’s search engine) they could drastically curve creativity on the Internet. Anyone who publishes anti-Google articles could be cut out of the Internet (if they are a google user, which millions are). This act by Google is one of millions that limit creativity on the web and reinforce Lessig’s claims.