Dr. Epsteins talk this week enlightened me to see how much control and information Google actually has. One of the most interesting aspects of his presentation was how easily the company can fly under the radar, doing many questionable things. The very fact that Google has the right to track every single thing we do when using Google software, even if we don’t know that we are using it made me feel a little uneasy. I am using Google Docs to work on this assignment right now, and they know everything that I am writing about. Part of me is a little unnerved and upset about the entire business model, and the other part of me is impressed by the effectiveness and creativity of the company’s founders. They have created an entire business model based upon the selling of consumer data to prospective outside companies. Dr. Epstein mentioned in the meeting that we are misled to believe that Google is a library where we can look up information when instead we are just the products upon which profit is created. Without people using the search engine, there would be no money, and the more information Google collects, the more money the company will make. This is the reason why the company has expanded outside of the search engine industry, into Gmail, Google Chrome, and Android. It is so easy for us as consumers to overlook all of the different ways we use the company's resources. They can see everything we do, search, and practically think at this point.
In addition to creating their own technology for data collection, Google is buying into already formed companies, about one new company is bought by Google every week. They own Youtube, which is the second most popular search engine (after Google) and they also bought Fitbit. Google owning Fitbit means that they not only collect data on our searches and communication, but they also have our physiological data, know our health, and even our sleep schedules. Since people use the search engine as their main source of knowledge and information, they are easily swayed by search results, especially the first page of search results. In fact, most people do not look past the first page of results, me included. By filtering search results and sorting them a specific way the company can adjust people's opinions and voting decisions. It makes me uncomfortable that in the United States where we have a fairly capitalist economy, certain companies are getting so large that they are abusing power and controlling election outcomes.
