Google Ethical Decisions

Abstract

The ability Google has to gather personal information of its user's and how they are using it. Is this practice an invasion of privacy or a great asset to marketing?

Key words:

Google

Privacy policies

Google Ethical Decisions

In the last 20 years, the internet has become a staple in daily life as we know it. Since the creation of the internet the way of life has changed greatly. The search for information is just a few key strokes away versus going to the library and spending hours of searching for the information in a text book or film. It has also created new forms of communication, which has increase the ease and speed of communicating with someone (e.g. e-mail, instant message, Skype).

With the creation of the internet, came Google Inc. the largest search engines in the world. Google is the gateway to the Internet for hundreds of millions of users worldwide. From Arabic to Zulu, the search engine can be used in more than 100 languages. In the US, Google is the unquestionable market leader (Vise, 2006).

The Purpose of Google

Google was created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PH.D. in 1996. It was to be used as a search engine for the World Wide Web. It is still a search engine, but since the creation, Google has expanded their platform that offers many different types of service (e.g. gmail, world maps and directions, advertising support). With all of these services and Google's popularity and use, Google had created a large data base of users' information.

Making the Right Decision

Google have the ability of gathering personal information of its users, by the user's history of web use to users filling out surveys and forms online, gathering their likes and dislikes. With this information Google uses this information as a powerful tool for marketing. Wondering how the ad for that pair of jeans you casually viewed on ebay.com, but decided not to buy, keeps popping up no matter what website you surf, no matter where? Blame it on Google's new privacy policy (Katiyar, 2012). With this information Google is able to associate your likes and dislikes with your buying traits. Many people are uncomfortable with the idea; a company knowing so much about their personal life, which has created privacy issues Google has had to deal with.

User Information for Marketing, Good or Bad?

Personally, I feel that having this type of information can be a very useful tool for marketing purpose. I can understand the concerns of those that think it is an invasion of privacy. As long as Google follows their privacy policy they have posted on their web site, consumer