Chapter 3 -Don't Be Evil: How Google Built its Culture Q4

[Alauna Thornton]

Earlier this winter I was looking for a new coat for winter.  Then I decide that I have a good coat and don't need to buy another. Now, when I do searches for school or work related items ads for the types of coats that I had looked at keep showing up.  Maybe I do want to get a new coat after all.  I am thinking I would like a new coat.

Do you believe ads that continue to show up agree with Google mission "Do no Evil"?  

[Christopher Simpson]

I don't think that still having ads for coats is necessarily evil, it is just google trying to create relevant ads for you so that they can make money. Google's computers don't know that you aren't interested in buying a coat anymore so you will probably keep seeing ads about it, it is in no way evil, the computer is just trying to be relevant to what it thinks you need. 

However what I do think could possibly be evil is the fact that Google scans anything you do on google  so that it can display relevant ads. This includes scanning e-mails, Google Drive content, this google groups page etc. No humans every see or scan anything, but there are computers constantly scanning all of Google's content. Here are their terms of service:

"“Our automated systems analyse your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customised search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection." 

For example, if you were talking about someone's new baby, Google's e-mail system would know that and you would see baby related ads when reading that e-mail. Is it evil that Google's system is invading my privacy and having their computers read my e-mails just so they can have better ads? I think that is getting fairly close. I am uncomfortable with the fact that their system reads e-mails all the time.

But the same system also has "non-evil" uses. As mentioned above, google uses the same system to detect spam and malware which is a positive. But google also uses that same system to catch criminals. For example. there is this story which Google made public shortly after updating its terms of service to say they scanned e-mails.  Here is another article explaining the process in detail. Google is not required by law to scan their content with automated algorithms to check for crimes, but they do anyway.

Scanning e-mails and other Google content could clearly be seen as "evil" and a violation of privacy, but at the same time it can catch spam, malware, and even criminals. So what do you think? Is Google's scanning system evil? 

[Mohammad aljaidyah]

I do not agree that google's mission is to be evil because they are regular ads, and they are possibly just trying helping to find a suitable item. These ads are not bad, and they are not trying to push to do unmoral behavior. For example, Yahoo promotes dating online which I think is "evil", and that is against my principles as a married man.

On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 6:40:38 PM UTC-5, Alauna Thornton wrote:

[Maha Alfasi]

Recently I have paid three items. Ads always shows products as an attractive product, but after that when I compared them with other sites I found them more cheap than I got it :(

On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 6:40:38 PM UTC-5, Alauna Thornton wrote:

Earlier this winter I was looking for a new coat for winter.  Then I decide that I have a good coat and don't need to buy another. Now, when I do searches for school or work related items ads for the types of coats that I had looked at keep showing up.  Maybe I do want to get a new coat after all.  I am thinking I would like a new coat.

Do you believe ads that continue to show up agree with Google mission "Do no Evil"? 

 

[sandra vega carrero]

I don't think that showing adds about my interest is evil. But it weird... it makes me think that someone is reading my emails trying to take my information... which is true... but, no body likes to  see it that way;..

On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 6:40:38 PM UTC-5, Alauna Thornton wrote:

[Alauna Thornton]

On Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at 8:21:18 PM UTC-5, Mohammad aljaidyah wrote:

I do not agree that google's mission is to be evil because they are regular ads, and they are possibly just trying helping to find a suitable item. These ads are not bad, and they are not trying to push to do unmoral behavior. For example, Yahoo promotes dating online which I think is "evil", and that is against my principles as a married man.

Is the dating online target at married individuals or is it for single individuals?  Perhaps the dating online is really design to help people find people that want the same things?  Honestly, I agree with you but I consider myself to be conservative.  

[Alauna Thornton]

On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 12:30:44 PM UTC-5, sandra vega carrero wrote:

I don't think that showing adds about my interest is evil. But it weird... it makes me think that someone is reading my emails trying to take my information... which is true... but, no body likes to  see it that way;..

We want to believe that everyone has good intentions.  The sad truth is someone else can get that information and manipulate it and use it in a corrupt manner if we are not careful.

[Alauna Thornton]

On Sunday, March 29, 2015 at 7:34:58 AM UTC-5, Christopher Simpson wrote:

I don't think that still having ads for coats is necessarily evil, it is just google trying to create relevant ads for you so that they can make money. Google's computers don't know that you aren't interested in buying a coat anymore so you will probably keep seeing ads about it, it is in no way evil, the computer is just trying to be relevant to what it thinks you need. 

However what I do think could possibly be evil is the fact that Google scans anything you do on google  so that it can display relevant ads. This includes scanning e-mails, Google Drive content, this google groups page etc. No humans every see or scan anything, but there are computers constantly scanning all of Google's content. Here are their terms of service:

"“Our automated systems analyse your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customised search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection." 

For example, if you were talking about someone's new baby, Google's e-mail system would know that and you would see baby related ads when reading that e-mail. Is it evil that Google's system is invading my privacy and having their computers read my e-mails just so they can have better ads? I think that is getting fairly close. I am uncomfortable with the fact that their system reads e-mails all the time.

But the same system also has "non-evil" uses. As mentioned above, google uses the same system to detect spam and malware which is a positive. But google also uses that same system to catch criminals. For example. there is this story which Google made public shortly after updating its terms of service to say they scanned e-mails.  Here is another article explaining the process in detail. Google is not required by law to scan their content with automated algorithms to check for crimes, but they do anyway.

Scanning e-mails and other Google content could clearly be seen as "evil" and a violation of privacy, but at the same time it can catch spam, malware, and even criminals. So what do you think? Is Google's scanning system evil? 

At this time, I do not believe Google's scanning system is evil.  In fact, I think it helps me more then it could ever harm.  I like the idea that Google catches criminals.  Thanks for you detail answer about Googles scanning process.  It is very informative.