A Reflection Of You In Their Hands
Having used it for just a few hours I’ve come to realize why Google wants to be in mobile phones so desperately. The only objection I have is that rather than sell their phones they should be giving them away free! I will explain why but before I do let’s just make sure we are all on the same page as to what Google does. For most people Google is a search engine that enables them to find the information they are looking for on the web… a sort of indexing engine that makes life on the web way more fruitful then just aimless wonder. To the slight more savvy Google is a marketing tool through which they can advertise their products and services and target their adverts to the audiences most likely to make a purchase. The ability to target an audience here is key to Google’s successful model and it is achieved by collecting information on what people search for. Yes when you search for something on the web you are inadvertently paying for it by giving away a scrap of your own private mind as well as your physical location, which is determined via the address of your internet connection… And you thought you were surfing for porn anonymously ha?
So for the most savvy Google is in fact a PUBLIC COMPANY ENGAGING IN INFORMATION GATHERING FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINANCIAL GAIN!
Now to the Phone: This phone is pretty amazing not only because it’s a sleek phone with an amazing touch screen, a 1Ghz CPU and the highest resolution screen on the market but also because it’s the first system that ties all the dots together. Be aware, it may be a phone to you but to Google it’s an information gathering device of unprecedented capability and the key component driver to their future strategies!Perhaps the most clever thing is that the information is literally bribed out of you. If you’re going to get the benefit of the full experience you will want to go with the flow and turn everything on. In-fact if you don’t then there is little point in buying such a phone!On the very first screen Nexus asks you to link in your Gmail account or to create one if you haven’t already got one. Great you mail is now integrated with your phone your contacts synchronized up on-line and it even asks you if you wish it to keep all your configurations and passwords on line in case you change, lose or your phone is stolen. Of course now Google chat is also active. You will want to activate the location services just so that the weather screen gives you your local weather rather than that in Kiev! For this you are give free access to maps and your location is proudly displayed in a high definition map! Amazing given that I’m indoors but of course Google’s positioning is driven by IP address ID as well as satellite.Next you will want to link in your Facebook account that will also sync up with your already present contacts and pictures of your buddies will be downloaded and associated with your phone contacts which by the way are now also loaded into Gmail as well as your Phone! Ho did I fail to mention that your Gmail account also now knows where you are and your Google searches now know what you are searching for, where you are, how old you are what your email address are, your phone number, what you picture looks like, what your marital status is, who your friends are, what you are doing tonight, what they are doing now, what your web site preferences are and everything else you have been so busily posting to your Facebook account. In fact in my case when I opened the picture gallery, it displayed pictures of a trip to Vietnam that I had posted 3 years back on my Picasa Web Album . So not only had Nexus gone through my list of friends on Facebook but it had also gone through all my other personal information including pictures, downloadig them to my phone and even displayed the date and time they were taken!Activate Tweeter and more information is gathered about what you say and who follows you. View or post a video to YouTube and you are giving information away about your preferences and tastes. Add or remove an application to/from your Google phone and that act is also recorder and scored against your profile.Anyway I think you are beginning to get the idea. In one swell swoop Google is now collecting profiles on each and every person that fully utilizes their phones. Your searches, your location, your mails, your chats, your friends their pictures, your pictures, your tastes, your choices, the web sites you visit, the partners you have, the restaurants, pubs, shops you patronize, who you call and how long for, where you have been all day, every day and what you are planning to do each and every day straight out of your calendar and to-do list! The phone even has the potential to gather and detect information such as you getting on a plane, or doing some exercise, telling when you wake-up or go to sleep, and of course who you bank with! In-fact the only thing I have determined its unable to do is tell when I am on the toilet!Undoubtedly Google will utilize this information for even finer advert targeting but what else will they utilize this for??? What can be gathered through this phone is more information that my government has on me, in-fact its more information than my Mother has on me!And what if the Government demanded access to all this? Where is my freedom gone?The choice is truly yours: A tantalizing cyber experience or your privacy.