Feb 11, 2010 Futurama, Heart and spirit, Social networking
No, it’s not all good.
Years ago I wrote, ”Google is not a utility. Or an agent of the state, or a thing that owes anyone anything except to the extent they pay for it. At least for now.”
Out of nowhere comes Google Buzz. It’s social networking that just appeared in your mailbox! As Adrian Dayton said earlier today, “I feel a little bit like I have been “spammed” into joining Google Buzz.”
Here’s a chat I had this morning with social media consultant (not “guru”!) Brian Wallace, who is entirely responsible for everything I have achieved with (and nothing I have abused via) social media, and he is not a happy camper, either:
[2/10/2010 7:08:41 PM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: hi
[2/10/2010 7:09:08 PM] Ron Coleman: hi — just logging off, catching train — talk later!
[2/10/2010 7:21:57 PM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: safe trip
[12:13:52 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: when you’re up and about – really would like to talk about google buzz with you
[9:29:00 AM] Ron Coleman: Good, I actually logged on because of my rude departure with you last night
[9:39:32 AM] Ron Coleman: OK yeah so I saw your initial take on this yesterday AM!
[9:39:51 AM] Ron Coleman: I was imagining you probably are thinking it’s bad enough they already know everything else about us…
[9:39:53 AM] Ron Coleman: That was my guess.
[9:42:04 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: hehe
[9:42:08 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: google buzz you mean
[9:42:16 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: it’s freaking awful
[9:42:27 AM] Ron Coleman: well that’s what you starrting the conversation with yeah
[9:42:29 AM] Ron Coleman: awful as in?
[9:42:32 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: as in
[9:42:49 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: raping our social network for their “search quality efforts”
[9:43:03 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: i’m just getting nervous about what they are in charge of and how it all connects
[9:43:11 AM]
Ron Coleman: Well
I saw this coming when they started returning results from “within your social network”
[9:43:18 AM] Ron Coleman: Whoa!
[9:43:19 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: yes agree
[9:43:24 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: whoa what
[9:43:30 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: oh the raping
[9:43:38 AM] Ron Coleman: I don’t think anything can stop them from owning us all but a law at this point
[9:43:47 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: right
[9:44:57 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: search + web history + analytics + transactions + mail (and reading it, mind you) + chat (and history) + our sites + trusted connections/connecting the dots + docs (and don’t forget, now they let u upload any docs, not just goog) + wave (comic relief?) + deals with real time search + etc
[9:46:00 AM] Ron Coleman: It’s ironic though because these are all services that do on their own merit greatly — albeit in varying degrees — really benefit the user.
[9:46:14 AM] Ron Coleman: I LOVE being able to read an attachment in Google docs without having to download it…
[9:46:29 AM] Ron Coleman: But between Google and FB …
[9:46:50 AM] Ron Coleman: I bet they could do a pretty good virtual mirror of all our hard drives without actually ever taking an image.
[9:47:50 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: correct
[9:47:59 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: maybe i should do a post like
[9:48:04 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: has google gone too far
[9:48:10 AM] Ron Coleman: Maybe I should do a post of
[9:48:14 AM] Ron Coleman: this IM exchange
[9:48:16 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: and suggest how you can exist w/o using goog
[9:48:20 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: sure
[9:48:33 AM] Ron Coleman: Well maybe we can exist without it
[9:48:42 AM] Ron Coleman: but isn’t it too late anyway?
[9:48:47 AM] Ron Coleman: They’ve got “everything they need”
[9:49:12 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: we can exist without it
[9:49:23 AM] Ron Coleman: I never thought I’d be the one yammering “there oughtta be a law” over a mere private enterprise thing like this
[9:49:25 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: google is hurting from social, real time search etc
[9:49:34 AM] Ron Coleman: but I guess there oughtta be a law
[9:49:38 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: google does not have enough regulation
[9:49:41 AM] Ron Coleman: Not regulation per se though
[9:49:53 AM] Ron Coleman: I want across the board requirement as to deletion of data
[9:49:55 AM] Ron Coleman: say 60 days
[9:49:57 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: mostly because lawmakers don’t know the nuts and bolts likely
[9:49:57 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: ok
[9:50:04 AM] Ron Coleman: Once a user deletes something
[9:50:08 AM] Ron Coleman: it is DELETED
[9:50:09 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: right
[9:50:19 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: try that with facebook haha
[9:50:22 AM] Ron Coleman: Plus much more opt in on what they do
[9:50:22 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: we’re all for sale
[9:50:31 AM] Ron Coleman: That’s why my law goes beyond any particular service
[9:50:47 AM] Ron Coleman: OK that’s our new campaign
[9:50:58 AM] Ron Coleman: Tell me when you get your story up, and I’ll update this blog post with a link to it
[9:51:06 AM] Ron Coleman: Then we’ll get it going with, I don’t know…
[9:51:09 AM] Ron Coleman: Social media maybe?
[9:51:14 AM] Ron Coleman: Like Google Buzz of course.
[9:52:05 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: thinking on it
[9:52:34 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: what aspect of what we said would you most like me to write about
[9:53:01 AM] Ron Coleman: Well my personal focus on this is deletion. That’s a great start. It’s not limiting per se on what they can do.
[9:53:08 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: ok
[9:53:12 AM] Ron Coleman: But I think a lot more opt in about what is done with data
[9:53:29 AM] Ron Coleman: and a lot more disclosure about “anonymous” and “aggregated” stuff they do with our data
[9:53:34 AM] Ron Coleman: But that wasn’t your question
[9:53:40 AM] Ron Coleman: I think you should write about
[9:53:45 AM] Ron Coleman: how a “social media guru”
[9:53:52 AM] Ron Coleman: Is terrified by Google Buzz.
[9:53:55 AM] Ron Coleman: That is the story.
[9:57:03 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: good idea
[9:57:48 AM] Ron Coleman: OK — let’s rock and roll
[9:57:55 AM] Brian Wallace – NowSourcing: k
Look, the free market does great things for us. It has given us, via Google and Facebook and all sorts of other technology, awesome powers unimaginable only a few years ago.
But it doesn’t protect certain things that, once lost, are hardly ever regained. Two of those things stand at the gateway of the private and the social: The twins, privacy and reputation. We now know for a certainty that the market, and the law, are simply not going to do a damned thing to protect the latter. If we’re deprived of privacy, too, what is left of us?
Brian used the word “rape.” Well, he also said we don’t have to use Google. So it’s not rape. It’s seduction. Either way, however, what’s lost cannnot be retrieved.
There ought to be a law. And time has come today.
UPDATE: Similar thoughts but, not surprisingly, not a similar proposal.
February 28th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
[...] or as economically productive either.I'm not so much a "there oughtta be a law guy," as I said in a recent post where I uncharacteristically said just that. I don't think there is a need for a law here, [...]