Open Letter To Google

Here is an interesting open letter written by Harald Anderson to Google.

Though I personally think that gmail is the best free webmail system we have available so far, Harald does raise the valid concern about the privacy of our emails (among other things). It does look a little suspicious that Google ads shown in or gmail accounts are so precisely matching the content of emails we receive.

I can applaud Google for fighting US Government subpoenas last year when Google was required to present search queries for 2 months, plus billions of urls to authorities, and instead managed to limit the request to only 50,000 urls (details are here:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/judge-tells-doj-no-on-search-queries.html )

But it doesn't necessarily mean that Google will be able to win the next time too. And even if it does, I would rather prefer Google or anybody else not to have access to my private data.

(You can learn more about privacy issues from our course on online business protection:
Online Business Protection )

Anyway, here is Harald's letter:


"Dear Google.

Over the years I have been impressed by some of the technical feats that you have performed.

Your technology is very impressive. However, I am writing today to voice some concerns that I hope you will address.

It is admirable that your company has become the success story of the internet era. My hats off to you. I have never, and will never fault a company for making money. I genuinely admire your creativity and ingenuity. Making ten billion dollars a year for such a young company is off the charts admirable!

I am very concerned about several aspects related to your business model. First and foremost is your stand on internet privacy.

I have been testing your gmail service and I must say, it is most awesome. Speed, Storage, Convenience. My question to you is how private is my information?

Is it possible for you to clarify your policy on data retention and data sharing?

Those adword ads that you run in the gmail service are very relevant and it seems like my gmail account is not private at all.

Google has immense data processing and storage infrastructures in place. Just wondering where I fit into that equation? Other serious concerns include the unlimited period for data retention that Google's current policies allow, and the potential for unintended secondary uses of the information that Gmail will collect and store.

I recognize that my technical abilities are limited. However, when all of my incoming messages are scanned for the purpose of ad placement it certainly violates the trust that I place in an email provider and establishes a dangerous precedent. I'd be more than willing to pay for your service if you could assure me of the privacy of my correspondence. Privacy is my primary need. Not that I have anything to hide.

As a side note I have never requested the large volume of breast or penis enlargement correspondence that I regularly receive. If possible, I would like that deleted from my file. I have this recurring nightmare of some Johnny Cochran type lawyer making my spam folder public. That kind of thing could really hurt a guys reputation.

I've read your CEO's comments on net neutrality and that didn't really pass the laugh test. Care to elaborate?

Next I have some questions related to your google toolbar. For many years I had your toolbar on my computer. Once again it was so convenient. Then I started thinking about spyware. The definition of spyware is computer software that collects information about someone without their informed consent. Now I recognize that to get the toobar installed on my computer I had to click and approve those legal forms to appease the lawyers. I hate to admit it but I didn't read those forms. Can you please answer for me why you have to put spyware on my computer to improve your search engine results? I don't understand, and if you do study my file you will quickly notice that for someone who receives a tremendous volume of breast and penis enlargement offers even on your gmail platforms, I've also never knowingly visited any of those sites.

Also, what's the big deal with the recent changes in the algorithm? For the last six years George W. Bush came up number one for the keyword term "miserable failure." He was followed by Jimmy Carter and then Michael Moore. In the past few weeks you changed all that and have led people once again to believe that your secret algorithm is the definition of eQuality. I didn't understand those results nor do I feel what replaced them is any better.

Your senior counsel policy adviser, Andrew McLaughlin recently stated that ""While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission."

Wouldn't it just be easier to let the public define quality by letting them vote on what their user experience was. Sure sounds a lot simpler than using high falootin mathematics to create a sophisticated guess. Just curious.

By the way, I recently looked up the word "Search Engine" on Google without the quotation marks and MSN was #1, followed by 4 other listings. The Google brand Search Engine came in at #6. You might want to get that Matt Cutts guy on this project right away. Does he really make a couple million a year?

This shareholder thinks the newest algorithm needs a makeover.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=search+engine

(If you choose to fire Matt Cutts over this, I'm available...just send me a note to my gmail account. The one with all the breast and penis enlargement advertisements.) We will never be able to attain world domination with a #6 ranking for the word search engine. Somebody's head is going to roll over this.

I'm also curious as to how the Google China site is doing?

When I compare results from http://Google.com to Google.cn they seem very similar until I get into religious and political arenas. Can you clarify your view on censorship for me please? I can't understand how censorship of religious and political ideas can ever be seen as good. Now I realize that China has a couple billion prospective "clickers" but come on...you don't want to go down in eHistory as the Search Engine that whitewashes the truth do you? Or do you prefer to be referred to as an advertising agency since that is where you make all of your income from?

What specifically makes Google's work any different than black and white propaganda?

My friends tell me that "the bottom line is the bottom line." I'm hoping that is not so. I think a more worthy punishment to Matt Cutts would be to send him over to your China office. He screws up like that in Peking and we'll never hear from him again. (Nobody really believes him anyway!)

In the last several months I have witnessed several huge changes in the adwords program. Seems like you are perfectly content in telling me how I should run my business when I am an advertiser but when it comes to China I see a double standard. Care to explain?

Should I open up my Google Adwords account in Peking?

If you don't believe in internet privacy and do believe in censorship just say so. Most webmasters are terrified of you already. That algorithm dance is brilliant. I don't think Hitchcock could write a better script....unless he were in China.

Please respond at your earliest convenience with a huge boost in my current search engine rankings...or Matt Cutts current job.

Sincerely,

-Harald Anderson
http://www.haraldanderson.com
Google Shareholder and Traffic Generation God "