Today’s announcement that Google will be launching an operating system for PCs in 2010 raises some interesting privacy questions.
As we know, Google makes most of its money from taking information about its users – search queries, content in Gmails et al – and matching that information with advertisers willing to pay for it.
By launching an OS for PCs, Google could potentially have access to unlimited amounts of information on users. Google is already collecting an unprecedented amount of information on its users – and they are continuing to collect more and more information as they launch products like Chrome, Android and voice search.
The move into providing operating systems should give everyone pause as to how much information Google is collecting. We hope Google will let its users know what information will be collected and how that information will be used. And more importantly give users the option to opt-out.
|
