InfoPower

This morning on CNN Saturday tech reporter Mario Armstrong appeared in a piece titled Google's New Privacy Policies, policies that will affect anyone who uses any of Google's 70+ products.  The policies seemingly amount to a retraction of any notion of privacy, as a digital web version of our lives will take form from Google's tracking devices. I took note of Armstrong's use of the phrase "the digital lifestyle" to emphasize the extent to which we are affected by such a policy change:  not just discrete pieces of our lives, but the totality of our lifestyles.  News of this has been reported over the last day or so, and measured in media time I'm bringing up this issue rather late and I'm sure that the tech blogs have been burning for some time, mostly with language I probably wouldn't understand.  It's the political angle I'm pondering, obviously, on an election-centered blog.  Several specific strands of thought emerge....The first arising from the roughly 300 year long American conversation about the proper roles and functions of citizens and their government. Ever since 1776 brought us both the Declaration of Independence and The Wealth of Nations, this conversation has often focused on the proper construction codes for the wall between public and private. In this case, the first question is whether Google intends simply to refine its marketing strategies, which even itself often brings annoyances to users but is not necessarily nefarious.  But what are the alternative possibilities?  What is the threat of cyber-criminals and -terrorists accessing this new synthesis of our life patterns and those of our business and civil society organizations?  What about our 7000 government bodies from school boards to the White House who use their products? What about Google's relationship with foreign governments and international organizations? Individuals can try to no longer use Google products, but one's digital past is still there, and as I'm trying to say there are considerations that extend beyond the ways individuals are affected. Even if a person manages to avoid Google products completely, participation in a society that relies deeply and widely on digital services propels one into the web.  And, again, this is not just about Google, since this sort of news can be expected to be heard about an increasing number of digital service providers.


We have to consider Google not only as a market player but as a political actor as well, and consider the latest news as one albeit attention-grabbing piece of a much larger and long developing picture.  That is, this discussion is not just about the 2012 presidential election, but all 21st century socio-political processes.  The use of digital products by citizens, candidates (and those merely considering candidacy for office), campaign organizations and the media makes them subject to these sort of policies.  The ability to frame the questions and control the messages of the contest are now subject to a new contextual variable: a global marketplace for innumerable individual commercial and social decisions bundled into neat categories of identity and put up for sale.  The size and the depth of this market's impact on political processes go well beyond what the textbooks call interest aggregation and interest articulation, functions normally tasked to political parties and interest groups.  Now, political parties and interest groups are themselves maneuvering within the digital marketplace, consequently subjecting their identities to the "privacy" policies of Google, et al.  Indeed, there's an open invitation, as reported here, whereby the CEO of Google calls for using the internet for increasing transparency in the lives and activities of politicians.

Just something to think about, but for now I have to check my gmail.
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Addendum...I see now where Google is explaining that the app in place in current contracts for services to government are not covered by these policies. As expected, more questions are raised for each one answered.