Is Google Evil ?

      It is hard to think of a website that could be as useful as google, as the latter is assiduously dedicated to helping people find the information they are looking for on the internet.

       Steward Brand, American writer best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, told once that "Information wants to be free" and since then, for more than 25 years, this phrase has been one of the most circulating citations in the Digital Era. Now, when it's "free" and accessible you just need to find it, and the aim of google is to facilitate that search.

      Of course no one can deny the fact that google is the most successful company throughout the internet history, which has reshaped the world economy and has triggered a revolutionary approach towards searching anything that comes to your mind. But let's not forget the fact of google having under their disposal and using a very sensitive and private information that all of us are negligently scattering on countless amount of websites, programs and applications.

      Just think of what happens every time you search for something on google... . It is recorded, stored and then sold to companies that want to know more about you. If you use Chrome Browser, it is possible that google knows every single website you have visited. It may have all your Gmail content, it may know your last location (if you use Google Latitude), it may hold your photos in various web albums and in Google+ network of course.
   
     There is another interesting feature if you are using Chrome Browser. There is a mode called "Incognito window" and while being in this mode your search history and the websites you have visited are not recorded in your computer. But still, Google knows what kind of websites you are visiting and again the same procedure of selling your information takes place.

      Technically, Google doesn't know every single detail about your internet behavior, meanwhile it has a tremendous amount of data about all us and our activity, from the content we create online, which is later used in commercial purposes by google, but which still lacks full and efficient utilization.

      Google has now a lot of services like google Maps, Latitude, Local, Gmail, Google+, Calendar, etc... . All these services  provide a huge source of information which is being updated almost every second in Google's servers. Other services like Android and Youtube are also big contributors to google's information gathering.

      From my personal experience with google I should admit that everytime I need to finish an assignment at my university, first thing I do is opening google and gathering information related to my topic. Every time I download an application or register on a new website I am offered to skip the procedure of registration by simply signing in with my current google account and therefore giving up another source, another medium for google to track my behavior. Just recently, I have send an e-mail to insurance company asking for health insurance termination and the next day when I checked my Gmail there was an ad related to health insurance offering much lower prices per month.

      In conclusion I want to say that the question "Is Google Evil ?" is hard to answer, as it depends first of all what kind of user you are. Do you really care about privacy, and to what extent ?

Here is a good video illustration of Google trying not to be EVIL: