Google Inc will hit its 10th birthday over the weekend.

As Google has climbed to its current dominant position, many have voiced concerns about just how much personal and identifiable information Google is able to collect about each one of us. It’s hard to argue that Google’s mission to organise the world’s information and the efficiency with which their search engine answers our most obscure questions are inherently bad for humanity. The concern is whether one company/entity should own and control so much information and whether that will one day lead to them owning and controlling us.

Two thoughts:

1. Who else should own/look after all this information if not Google? In an opinion poll of “Who do you trust more?” I can imagine Google coming above, for example, the US government (or indeed the UK government with it’s patchy record on keeping data secure).
   At least, as a business, Google’s motives are fairly clear – make more money.
2. If Google have all this information, isn’t it likely that other entities have it too. It’s true that Google have a lot of money but I’m sure the governments of the world have more and aren’t ignoring the goldmine of information that’s out there on the web (particularly the bits that Google won’t show you where the terrorists live).

Of course there are those conspiracy theorists that say Google and the government are one and the same!