Human rights group accuses Google of being the world's "Biggest Big Brother"

Nov 16, 2007 15:10 GMT  ·  By

Ironically enough, the news of this happening is hosted on Yahoo!.

The human rights group Privacy International accuses Google that through its snooping ways it will eventually grow to know everything about every individual that uses a PC or his mobile phone to access its services.

Because the Mountain View based company handles 200 million searches a day while millions more use its email, social networking sites and online calendars, the group believes that users unwillingly give personal information that is stored in the largest database on the planet. Privacy International warns that Google will soon know about "our jobs, hobbies, whether we're married, have children, where we go on holiday and even, with GPS on our new mobile phones, exactly where we are," as well as drawing the attention to Google Earth, which they say is turning everybody into "cyberspace snoops".

Ed Parsons, Google's head scientist says in reply that Google Earth actually changes the world for the better by revealing areas that have not yet been discovered or by helping with the plotting of routes to work for the embattled Iraqi residents for example or the satellite pictures of razed villages and squalid refugee camps scattered across Darfur. "For me it's one of the most compelling ways to get all of us thinking about how we can reduce the effects of climate change."

The site allows people to follow the fortunes of the endangered beasts. For example, elephants moving from the Kalahari to the Okavango Delta in Botswana and humpback whales making their 4,000 mile trip from the equator to the Antarctic can be followed as they make their spectacular treks. Ed Parsons says: "What person whether a child or an adult wouldn't be blown away by the sight of thousands of animals migrating across Africa."

It's true that Google gathers information, the result is that it delivers user-oriented personalized ads but I think that it's rather out there to say that it will be the next KGB when it comes to personal profiles.