The
data mining technology that is integral to the Google AdWords experience is a power tool in creating an individual profile
for anyone who surfs the web. The amazing capacity to target specific ads to personal search topics, geographic locations
and web history is the harbinger of a total recall on your personality. If the benefits of getting relevant advertisement
that maximize sales opportunities were the only purpose of the process, the relatively benign intrusion of a materialistic
message might be tolerable to most internet users. However, the bull in the china shop is not merely in the business of making
a commercial profit. Google is a wonder creation of the calculate surveillance society.
"When data mining systems are placed at the core of interactive
services in a rapidly changing and sometimes adversarial environment, statistical models need to be combined with ideas from
control and game theory; for example, when using learning in auction algorithms.
Research
at Google is at the forefront of innovation in machine learning and data mining - we have one of the most active groups working
on virtually all aspects of data mining."
OK, so the dominant
internet technology company is in business to harvest information on the inner recesses of each unique login. Should a cyber
sleuth be concerned? Well, according to the scholarly paper, The Google-NSA Alliance:
Developing Cybersecurity Policy at Internet Speed by Stephanie A. DeVos:
"On
February 4, 2010, the Washington Post reported that Google and the National Security Agency had partnered to analyze the cyberattacks,
with the objective of better defending Google and its users from future attack. Though neither organization commented on the
partnership, sources told the Washington Post that the alliance allows for the sharing of critical information without violating
Google’s policies or laws that protect Americans’ privacy of online communications. Under the terms of the alliance,
Google will not be sharing proprietary data and the NSA will not be viewing users’ searches or e-mail accounts. The
article stated that Google approached the NSA shortly after the attacks, but due to the sensitivity of the alliance, the deal
took time to be formulated. Any agreement would be the first instance where Google had entered a "formal information-sharing
relationship" with the NSA."
PC World in the article,
The Google-NSA Alliance:
Questions and Answers lists the following concerns and would have you believe there is nothing
ominous behind any alleged relationship.
1) Is the Google-NSA alliance really happening?
2)
What would be the point of a Google-NSA partnership?
3) Would the government
gain access to my personal information?
4) Why would Google work with
the NSA instead of the Department of Homeland Security?
"The Justice Department is defending the government's refusal
to discuss—or even acknowledge the existence of—any cooperative research and development agreement between Google
and the National Security Agency.
The Washington based advocacy group
Electronic Privacy Information Center sued in federal district court here to obtain documents about any such agreement between
the Internet search giant and the security agency.
The NSA responded
to the suit with a so-called "Glomar" response in which the agency said it could neither confirm nor deny whether
any responsive records exist. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington sided with the government last July."
Another concern comes from a report in Higher Thinking Primate. "The ruling comes as controversy has been growing around CISPA, a
bill that passed the House last month that would allow private firms like Google to share a wide range of information with
government agencies like the NSA for cybersecurity reasons."
Even
if one accepts that, the NSA agreement preserves Google's stated policies on Americans' privacy, what will be the effect of
the new CISPA legislation on the supposed firewall protecting your personal data history?
The
technology behind the most successful search engine evolves as different objectives develop. Anyone conducting Google searches
knows that changes to their algorithms have the net effect of filtering out results that once were routine. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has concerns about "the vagueness of what Google considers to
be a high number of removal notices, how Google plans to make its determinations, and how "there will be no process of
recourse for sites who have been demoted."
Many civil libertarians fear that the sordid political agenda of the NSA is influencing
the business practices of Google to ban "undesirable" content from search queries.
"In 2008, a team of software coders inside the National Security Agency started reverse-engineering
the database that ran Google.
They closely followed the Google research
paper describing BigTable — the sweeping database that underpinned many of Google’s online services, running across
tens of thousands of computer servers — but they also went a little further. In rebuilding this massive database, they
beefed up the security. After all, this was the NSA."
The lingering questions about the nature of the Google – NSA relationship,
jeopardize business confidence in the use of their services and ad programs. The persistent claims that Google data integration
is coordinated with the NSA and that the Utah Data Center has linkage with the Google server network, gains traction when the government
refuses public disclosure of the full historical relationship.
Once
online, the data lives eternally. Act accordingly.
