Don’t be evil ““ as the Google mantra goes. Or at least, be a little evil for the greater good.
Immediately after Google’s introduction of their new project, Google Flu Trends, the Cassandra cries roared from privacy groups. Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, yet cursed so that no one would believe her predictions. This is no Cassandra, though; and there is certainly no privacy infringement disaster on the horizon.
Google Flu Trends takes aggregated search queries such as “flu-like symptoms” and graphs them on a map showing areas where those queries are high, hopefully giving early warning of possible outbreaks. While Google Flu Trends isn’t able to give us specific information like the number of outbreaks or which strain is circulating, it is unmatched in its speed and accuracy. The information is current and updated on a daily basis; whereas the US Centers for Disease Control can take up to two weeks to collate official information. Google compared its collected statistics against five years of figures from the CDC, which has a network of 1,500 doctors across the nation who provide weekly reports on the statistics of patients complaining of flu-like symptoms.
The project’s positives far outweigh the petty privacy concerns. However, shortly after the release of Google Flu Trends a week ago, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, as well as other privacy groups, issued statements of concern for individuals’ privacy.
In analyzing the general public’s reaction to Google Flu Trends, two distinct groups emerge: one that feels that this will only create more hysteria and fear, and one that embraces the information and views it as an opportunity to prevent the spread of an infectious disease. The former promotes individual privacy above information for the community and ignorance above information. Any tool can be misused, but that doesn’t mean we should excuse it completely.
Maybe EPIC isn’t the Cassandra in this story, but Google is. To predict looming catastrophes for preventative measures is not to create fear and set the disaster in motion. Alan Atkisson, in his book “Believing Cassandra,” writes, “too often we watch helplessly, as Cassandra did, while the soldiers emerge from the Trojan horse just as foreseen and wreak their predicted havoc. Worse, Cassandra’s dilemma has seemed to grow more inescapable even as the chorus of Cassandras has grown larger.” The chorus of privacy groups is beyond the pale. Collective intelligence may be impalpable now, but Google’s collaboration with health and the Internet is progress, evil or not.
It was these same privacy advocacy groups that prompted Google to link its privacy policy on its homepage this past July where Google clearly outlines how it “anonymizes” and collects the aggregated data. Google makes logs anonymous by changing bits in a stored IP address while keeping the cookie. This process makes it less likely that the IP address can be linked back to the cookie. Because it relies on these methods of “anonymizing” and aggregated data, information cannot be used to identify individual users. In fact, individual data would be useless because data like this are only meaningful across large populations of Google search users. But this collection of aggregated search queries is nothing new. Google Trends is another feature of Google that collects top search queries daily and ranks them. If you were to look at the popular search queries on Nov. 4, you will find terms such as “McCain’s concession speech” or “Did Prop 8 pass?”
There is always an unwritten exchange when we make the decision to use Google. Of course they collect our data ““ this process is one of the founding pillars of Google. Earlier this month, the company took further steps to protect user privacy by shortening its previous 18-month IP address retention policy to nine months, while still retaining utility of the data and being mindful of user privacy.
However, if you are still concerned about privacy and worry that your search queries will brand you with a scarlet “F” ““ there are alternatives. Use a public computer. On a public computer, your IP address and cookie are irrelevant. If you would like to search at home, there is a Firefox extension called NoScript that will block Google Analytics from collecting your data. However, at home when you generally do not have control over your IP, deleting cookies routinely will break the link between your information and your IP address.
This alarmist reaction to Google Flu Trends, which aims at informing the public and more effectively using our resources, seems paltry compared to the bevy of civil liberties that have been violated in the name of fighting terrorism. I’d much rather EPIC investigate the Patriot Act than Google.
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If you think a little evil is good, then e-mail Tran at mtran@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.