Aug 9, 2005

Google THIS

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is all bent out of shape because CNet wrote an article about him last month which included some personal information.

Personal information that the reporter found by doing a Google search on Schmidt.

Reporter Elinor Mills' Cnet article made the point that Google, the search engine used by more than half of U.S. Internet users, has much potential for privacy invasion, particularly through data it collects that is not available to the public, such as logs of Google searches. She illustrated the story with information that could readily be obtained by anyone with access to Google and the Internet: Schmidt's net worth, home neighborhood, attendance at Burning Man and enthusiasm for amateur piloting.

"From what I understand, most of (Google's objection to the article) had to do with the anecdotal lead we used to illustrate the point that information could be obtained rather easily using Google search," Singh said.
Seriously, Google. Give me a fucking break here. This is information was found on YOUR search engine, which - in the interest of full disclosure - I love and use daily. It's not like CNet's Elinor Mills rummaged through Schmidt's dumpster at his private residence. Lighten up.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bet Yahoo! is rolling around in glee, hoping to make something of this.

They're like a bunch of spoiled kids running around a playground.

We need a large ruler and a"time-out" box for them.

Anonymous said...

What ever happened to Google's "no evil" pledge? Isn't press intimidation evil?