Google knows so much about us. So much that NOW it has started to predict our behaviour. And pretty accurately too.
Should we be scared?
Google products are an integral part of our lives today. And they make it so easy to do a lot of things which without google, let's agree, would be a pain. From helping us crawl the deep dark web to keeping our photos safe. From giving us the best mail experience to helping us navigate a new city. Youtube to the awesome Android OS. Google gives em all out for free.
What’s in it for Google.
Google is not “share love, save the cute dolphins” company. Don’t mistake it for Wikipedia. Google is an advertisement company. It makes billions off advertising. It learns about you, your preferences, and uses that data to feed you relevant advertising (AdSense).
How Google does it.
Google saves search terms entered by You and links it to your google account, Uses your location data, Asks you to enter the location tag on your photos to know more about you as well as that place, Learns from your google+ profile about your socioeconomic stand.
Then processing these data, It builds a profile for you. The profile contains your likes, dislikes, Your day to day movement map and a pretty complicated data collection, harvested from Your interaction with Gapps.
That data collection not only tells google what ads to show you… But when to show you. Predictive Modelling brah.
The google now app shows me match scores when a match is going on. Tells me When a new linux distro is released, whether, guitars, football etc without me even searching for it. Google Now understands me so much, sometimes I wish it were my wife.
Should We be scared?
Firstly, Google is not interested in spying on You, telling Your friends about that day when you googled why animals can’t talk. Nope, Google isn’t interested in that weird shit.
Google wants to make money. That’s all.
Some things to note…
Google won’t sell your info to anybody.
No human being accesses your data, It’s all processed by an Engine.
You can delete Your data anytime.
You can choose what info about you google stores.
Google won’t allow the Governments to monitor you.
Google primarily uses Big data. Personal data processing is secondary.
Actually, Google is very serious about privacy. You might remember Apple denying to unlock a shooter’s iphone both on Government's order as well as the father’s request. Why? One incident of privacy breach is enough to bring these companies down, as these companies rely on people’s trust. They have everything to lose.
The verdict
You eat your Idlis with sambhar and not chutney, and the waiter knows this. Now You can be happy about the fact that You’ll be served better or be creeped out how the waiter knows You’re allergic to chickpea.
I say it’s a win-win. Now relax and Google careless whisper. Enjoy.
