Will Google Continue To “Do No Evil”?

Privacy. Perhaps the most central worry to putting our lives out on the internet, the issue of privacy within email, social networking, and search has been put on center stage once again with Google’s revision and unification of its myriad privacy policies across services. Google’s new privacy policy, which will apparently have the same user controls and will be implemented on March 1, aims to merge all its policies into one and allow data sharing between them to better serve the end user

Whether this is intrusive and wrong or if you’re comfortable with this is a consideration each person needs to decide personally, but Microsoft has decided to take advantage of what could be considered a Google faux pas and push its own Bing, Internet Explorer, Office, and Hotmail services through targeted ads in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times.

The ad accuses Google of lying when the conglomerate states that the unification is merely to make things more streamlined and consistent across the various services. Microsoft claims Google isn’t following its mantra of “do no evil,” rather caring more about finances by trying to track user data better to get more advertising money. The idea is that connecting all of your data between services allows Google to “extort” even more money from you through targeted advertising.

In fact, Microsoft resurrected an internal video called ‘Gmail Man’ on YouTube (which in itself is a hilarious bit of synchronicity), a clip detailing once again how Google doesn’t care about their user’s privacy, intruding unnecessarily in their lives in a way that Microsoft’s products do not. While clearly this is all propaganda to gain market share, the question remains as to whether Microsoft has a point or not. Does Google merely see its users in terms of advertising revenue, capitalizing in every way possible to make more money? Or is this privacy change by Google meant to serve the end user, to simplify, unify, and create a better, more integrated experience? What do you think?