Google Gets A Dose of Their Own Medicine

Google Gets A Dose of Their Own Medicine

According to an article I came across on PCWorld.com, Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman for Google, is upset with the NSA over none other than a privacy issue. There was an article posted recently in the Washington Post stating that the NSA has been spying on the Internet giant’s servers. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal he stated this was not OK. He continued that this is possibly illegal and that the government does not have to spy on all 320 million Americans to bust 300 suspected terrorists. Of course the NSA denies this and says that its not the servers they accessed, but the links between them and the open Internet. Though the NSA claims it is abiding within the law with its mining techniques, an audit from 2011 and 2012 shows they broke the law nearly 3,000 times.

            I totally agree with Google here that there is a privacy issue, but as we all know Google is not so innocent either. They did participate in the NSA’s PRISM Program that collected information from citizen’s email and phone calls. Millions of Americans became upset with the NSA and our Government once Edward Snowden, whistleblower of NSA’s spy program, leaked this information. Now other countries, whether they are allies or not, are also upset with the NSA due to them spying even across international boarders. Data mining or spying seems wrong when people do not know it is going on. There should be warnings posted or consent requests on websites that host data mining spyware or any other software that is collecting personal information on any individual. This should take place especially on initial visits.

            Google uses keywords from our personal private e-mails to better suggest advertisements to us on their browser. This is a little creepy. I do agree with Google being upset with the NSA, but I feel Google should be held accountable too. I would like to know your opinions on this subject. Do you feel Google has the right to be upset with the NSA if they are doing the same thing to you and me? Also, what are some ideas to inform the public about the information collected from them?

Jeffers, Dave. “Google is understandably upset with the NSA.” PCWorld.com. Online.

4 Nov 2013. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2060682/google-is-understandably-upset-with-the-nsa.html#tk.nl_today. 12 Nov 2013.

What else can be data mined? Your Dreams!

Data mining seems to be the new buzzword these days among companies and industries.  Across the board, business are scrambling for ways to gain business intelligence by analyzing the mass amounts of data they have collected to look for patterns and predict future behavior.  Many people, including myself, have suggested that the collected consumer data has been voluntarily given.  However, the ability to profile and target a particular set of consumers may now be possible by data mining your dreams.

Throughout history, people have tried to interpret the meaning of dreams and researches have used quantitative methods to understand the statistically recurring patterns to determine that dreaming is not random, but a coherent and sophisticated way of psychological functioning.  With recent technological advancements, researchers have learned that artists are more likely to have nightmares, children dream more of animals than adults, and younger adults have more self-awareness in their dreams than older adults.  Of course this data was derived by information voluntarily given in studies, but enough data has been mined to now create certain profiles allowing predictive analysis.

In one study, dream researcher Kelly Bulkeley was able to correctly guess what type of job participants had, whether or not they were a pet owner, if they had an active sex life, if they were a student, or if they were an athlete.   All of this was accomplished simply by receiving electronic files of dream reports sent to her from a third party that were uploaded to a data mining programs analyzing patterns in perceptions, emotions, characters among other attributes of dreams.  When compared against a database of statistical profiles, the researcher was able to make inferences about the person’s activities concerns, activities and relationships in waking life with nothing more than a little bit of information about their dream.

While I seriously doubt advertisers will be broadcasting subliminal messages into our dreams enticing us to run out and buy a pair of LightSpeed Briefs anytime soon, the predictive analysis database is growing.  Imagine the implications of reverse engineering the process to statistically know what a person dreams of based on a few observational characteristics.  This could be a gold mine for companies looking for the competitive advantage to selectively target customers.  

BULKELEY, KELLY. "Data-Mining Our Dreams." New York Times Online. N.p., 18 Oct. 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/opinion/sunday/data-mining-our-dreams.html?_r=0. 5 Nov. 2013.