You are here Antitrust
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2007-04-30 17:49
The New York Times article today on Google highlights another reason all Americans should be worried about Google's anti-competitive arbitrage of U.S. privacy laws and consumer expectations.
- "Google has been working with officials in Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia to make some of that information more broadly available."
- That "information' is the data on state websites; and is part of Google's mission "to make all the world's information accessible and useful."
- "But the increased exposure of government records through web searches is likely to raise privacy concerns."
- "It will be easier to collect disparate facts about a person, which bound together and aggregated, can present troubling problems..."
I just heard someone joke:
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2007-04-23 19:17
Google just announced a new so called "service" for you: "Web History."
You know what gives me the creeps about this?
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Google is trying to act like this computerized "intimacy theft," the systematic spying and mass archiving of the intimate private search lives of Americans for the benefit of the highest bidder -- is for the average American's benefit.
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Reportedly 9 of 10 Google users think their search histories are private information.
How do we know Google does not sell or give access to this extremely intimate info to the government or the highest bidder?
You know what gives me the most creeps about Google's Web History service?
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2007-04-23 13:01
The WSJ reported DoubleClick Inc. "Defends its deal with Google" by "pledging that the information it collects about, and for, its graphical-advertising customers won't be shared with Google after the acquisition later this year."
Let's be real here. They really do think everyone is stupid.
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First, Doubleclick is being bought by Google so what Doubleclick says now doesn't matter after the transaction closes.
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To be taken seriously this pledge needs to made by Google in writing and enforceable as part of the transaction contractually or by court decree.
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It is unlikely that Google will agree to this restriction because Google knows that it can simply change the DoubleClick policy and harmonize it with Google's very loose privacy policy on a going forward basis.
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This public pledge is also a swiss cheese committment.
Privacy issues are Google's achilles heel. Google is growing so fast and is so profitable largely because they are most aggressively arbitraging privacy law and american's privacy expectations. The FT said Google's brand is now number 1 in the world.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-04-20 09:45
Google turned in another awe-inspring financial performance in 1Q07. Pick your news report for the basics. All you need to know is revenue growth was up 63%. Wow!
- Derek Brown of Cantor Fitzgerald said in the Washington Post today:
- "I am basically convinced that no company in history has put up the type of finanical performance that Google has put up from a growth and financial perspective for as long as they have done it."
- It's hard to disagree with him. There is no other example.
- They are a jugernaut.
Let me translate some of the earnings call:
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2007-04-19 10:25
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2007-04-16 13:59
The news of Google acquiring Double-Click prompted me to spend a good part of my weekend analyzing the competitive implications of this seminal proposed acquisition for the future of the Internet.
My analysis focused on answering the following key questions of interest:
- What is Google's real competitive endgame with DoubleClick?
- Why is this acqusition likely to pass antitrust muster?
- Why will Google increasingly dominate Internet search?
- What other anticompetitive behaviors by Google position Google to dominate Internet advertising?
Summary of my conclusions:
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