Eric Schmidt tells us how Google really feels about privacy
Just in case you ever wondered how Google really feels about privacy, or wondered what a Schmidt and a Zuckerberg have in common, the CEO of Google has made it clear where his heart lies.
Eric Schmidt is attending the International Radio Exhibition (or Internationale Funkausstellung if you are of the German persuasion) and he used the venue to talk a little about a number of subjects that are dear to many hearts, according to a TechCrunch story. One such of particular interest is privacy, which Schmidt talked all around without using the word as a subject. Here is a little of what Schmidt had to say:
Ultimately, search is not just the web but literally all of your information – your email, the things you care about, with your permission – this is personal search, for you and only for you.
We can suggest what you should do next, what you care about. Imagine: We know where you are, we know what you like.
A near-term future in which you don’t forget anything, because the computer remembers. You’re never lost.
Those of you who are not worried about these things may not be paying attention, or may not have spent much time thinking about your privacy. Schmidt seems to be following in a vein pioneered by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, saying that privacy is a concern of the past, and is not applicable in the Age of the Internet. Instead, everything that you say and do should be a matter of public record, as long as Schmidt, Zuckerberg and their ilk can own and control that “public” record of your private information.
Ultimately, these two men profess to say that it is not only all right for them to own and manipulate your private information, no matter how gained, but that they have an inalienable right to sell anything about you they please. In a very real way, Schmidt and Zuckerberg are saying that they own the rights to you. And the bulk of people, given how they venerate and patronize both companies, seem to agree with them.
Even sheep don’t roll over and give up that easily.
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