Google Is Big Brother!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


I use Google a lot, and basically I like it.  My email is through GMail, a Google program that is user-friendly and lets me keep massive amounts of stored messages.   I also have two blogs, this one and Okinawan Odyssey (www.okinawanodyssey.blogspot.com) through Blogspot, another Google program.

But Google is certainly far from being the altruistic giant it once pretended to be.  It has teamed with Verizon to kill the concept of Net Neutrality in favor of a high-speed zone reserved for those with the ability to pay big bucks.  (A protest group called the Raging Grannies recently made some noise at a Google event regarding the corporation's shameful stance on Net Neutrality, and one of those old sweeties carried a sign saying "Google is Evil if the Price is Right!"  Yeah, buddy!

But there is more to the reason that Google stock is currently selling at nearly $620 a share than simply their plan to peddle space on the proposed faster lanes of the Internet.  The company reads the emails of schmucks like me who use GMail, and then posts ads trying to make a few more dollars off of things mentioned inside of those emails.  There is no right to privacy in the Land of Google!


A few days ago I emailed a friend who is stationed in Korea and told him that some other friends and I would be coming to Korea over Thanksgiving.  I told him we would be flying into Incheon and staying in Seoul.

That was a couple of days ago.  Now, every time I pull up an email from anyone, it is accompanied by a string of advertisements about Korea.   This afternoon's selection includes pitches for the following:  Fly to Seoul from $249 (LowFares.com), Incheon Airport Hotel  (finetravel.com), Korea Sales Office (intralink.biz),Want to Study in Korea? (korea.net), Guesthouse Korea (guesthouseinkorea.com),  Hyatt Hotel in Seoul (Hyatt.com), and Seoul (TripAdvisor.com).

So Google, you're reading my  mail.  I guess that is technically no worse than the Bush Administration going through  the telephone calls of every citizen in America for "national security" reasons.  Might makes right - right?  I have started keeping my curtains closed in case the guy who drives your Google Maps car tries to film through my windows - of course he would have to scale six stories to do it!  But something tells me that you all probably have a big fleet of black helicopters for just such circumstances!   And please don't break in to peek in my underwear drawer - I promise it won't be worth your effort!

Okay, Google, it's fairly obvious - you're greedy and you suck!   I hope that you accept my gentle observations in the helpful spirit in which they were intended - and please, please don't cut me off!