We
love Google because you guys create top-notch Web tools and services.
But we are growing increasingly worried about having our entire
lives --all the emails, calendars, instant messages, web searches,
photographs, web sites visited, and more -- in the hands of one company.
Sergey
and Larry -- we made you guys billionaires by telling our friends and
families to use your great products. You made a Web search tool that
actually worked decently, so hey, enjoy the Benjamins. Live it up.
But
now you have like dozens of products. Sure, most of them are in Beta
limbo, but hey, they work well and we keep happily using whatever you
throw out there to us. But man, think of all the terrabytes of usage
data you guys most have at this point. Every email and to-do list and
web search and what ads we click and photos of our chihuahuas. So we
think it's time for Google to begin the discussion and planning phase
for a tool that lets users view and tweak all their stored information.
"This
[Google Data Privacy] (GDP) tool would allow me to review all of the
information that Google retains on me across all services, from all
devices, and from all sources. GDP would allow me to determine the
maximum data retention period for each of my services. GDP would allow
me to selectively opt out of cross-service data mining &
correlation, even if it reduced the quality of the services I receive.
GDP would allow me to correct any inaccurate data in my profile. And
GDP would log and alert me when my data was queried by other services."
Gene Becker
So
lets open the dialog up. A bunch of us are actually pretty technical
so you'll get good feedback if for some reason your army of geniuses
gets stuck and need some help figuring this out!
Signed,
Eric Krout on behalf of the Internet