Google's Eyes Are Watching You

The folks over at Google must have had their mobile department working overtime lately. Their popular and increasingly useful Google Maps program has just taken a slightly creepy leap ahead with their new “My Location” feature. This has got to be either the coolest feature they have added in a while or their entry into the Big Brother competition.

Simply put, the Google Maps program that has been available on cell phones for some time now has the ability to pinpoint your location and put it on the map. You can then search for locations and get directions to the nearest movie theater, gas station, martini bar, or whatever you need. Pretty sweet, right?

We all know that the cell phone company needs to know your general location so it can route a call through the correct tower so you get your calls, emails, and streaming stock quotes. Police can get that location with a court order in certain situations, but for the most part it is not actively tracked. Google on the other hand, is nearly legendary in its data mining and manipulation skills. They have been sweeping up massive amounts of usage and statistical data for years and turning that directly into the ability to feed you the most appropriate advertising to make them money.

Could this be the next direction for marketing? While they say in the below video that they don’t get any personal data, it would be easy enough to tag everyone with a number for their own use. They could easily get access to an immense wealth of marketing data – how many times a day you go to a coffee shop, which grocery stores you shop in, and what time of day you like to visit strip clubs. The potential for abuse of that kind data is huge, but Google has been adept at keeping things under control up to this point. Pretty cool, but it could easily get creepy. The Google corporate motto is “Don’t be evil.” Let’s hope that they remember it.