After Facebook, Will Google Be The Next Against United States Congress?

You might be confused enough because of this mind-boggling question, but this is possible, right? Why? Because Facebook isn’t the only one which has hold over your private information! If you are alert enough, you might have noticed that dozens of Google’s products are collecting our data in order to enhance user experience. YouTube and Twitter are also not far behind in this game. To serve ads and gain profit, these also have an immense amount of data. Josh Golin, director of the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has said that, “I absolutely think that Google is next and long overdue.” Interestingly, he is not the only one who thinks this way.

In the recent turn of events Sri Ambati, CEO of H2O.ai, has conveyed that “More than Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Twitter are part of the problem, they’ve created monopolies in search, online commerce, and communications but were not particularly careful with data. The rise of new, powerful companies leads to the demonization of them and the urge to regulate them.”

Read: How Much Google Knows About You?

Well, they are nowhere wrong! The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg got grilled because of Cambridge Analytica Scandal and had to give explanations for everything they have been doing from the beginning. On the flip side, if we talk about Google, it has been collecting data for quite long through Google account of people and thus it has far more data about us when compared to Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Moreover, it is collecting and updating its database each day! Data Mining and profiling used in the Facebook are not different from what Google is using and that’s why your privacy is at stake.

An In-depth Analysis

Although we are becoming quite concerned about our data privacy and taking every possible step to get hold of the same, we are ignoring the obvious, that is, Google privacy settings. Let’s take an example of Google Maps, it asks you permissions regarding various things, but have you ever wondered why it wants to modify your SMSs, or gallery or USB drive? Another quite disturbing thing is that you have given permission to download data from the Internet without any notification. This doesn’t stop here! If we talk about the apps, each and every app needs “full network access.” Well, this is nothing if you are living in developed countries, but for people of developing countries, this can significantly increase your data usage bill.

Also, we cannot forget that in 2012, Google has settled Federal Trade Commission charges as it was found that the company was tracking the users online through Safari browser. Again in 2013, it agreed to multi-state settlement, you ask for what? For not correcting the mistakes it had done. Fast forward four years, it was again fined by European Commission because this time, Google was found breaching EU antitrust rules by giving illegal advantage to a few companies. If we consider these instances, we can easily conclude that Google never learns. No matter how many times, it is penalized, it will never stop collecting data from Google accounts which are used worldwide. Be it one way or another, it will collect data in the name of providing the best services!

Also Read: How To Get Google Out Of Your Life?

What Might Happen Now?

The data mining and collection policies used by Google are not hidden from anyone. Maybe soon, we’ll hear that Google is trying to justify its data collection tactics. We don’t think members of United States Congress will take any action or not but we can at least try to defend our data privacy by keeping a check on Google privacy settings. At no point we say that Google is inefficient and clumsy in handling data but keeping too much information about almost everyone in the world is contributing to its monopoly. The last thing we want to hear is Google losing grip of its security. Therefore, keep your eyes open fellas!

We hope that Google takes lessons from Facebook and upgrades its policies. Rest all is in hands of concerned authorities as they’ll be the one who will be under scrutiny. What do you think about this? Do let us know in the comments section!