Following up on my post yesterday about the troubling EULA provisions in the Chrome installation package, it appears that Google is admitting that they made a mistake and working to fix it.
I made this comment a couple of places yesterday, but I’ll make it again: For some bizarre reason, I never expected Google not to fix it. This is a strange sort of consumer currency for me. In essence, I have this completely naive trust in Google (‘cuz they’re not evil) that they want to do the right sorts of things, and if they do the wrong sorts of things, if you point it out to them, they’ll fix it.
Which is a really bizarre way to think about a multi-billion dollar American corporation, especially when I can’t really put my finger on a specific reason why I would give them such blind trust.
On tor.com yesterday, I actually said:
Honestly, I suspect the EULA is like documentation — most developers don’t really think about it until very late in the process (if at all). If most developers are like the ones in my shop, they think of the EULA as something on a tick-off list (17. Add the latest EULA template to the install package.) and expect that the lawyers have handled the details.
Which *might* seem really shoddy to me until I realize that I’ve never read all the provisions of a Creative Commons license, either. I know what it’s supposed to do, but I haven’t studied all the stuff in there — and yet, it functions essentially as a EULA for text I produce and release to the web.
Certainly, somebody at Google dropped the ball, but since I’ve been known to drop the ball in the same way (especially when rushing out a release to meet an arbitrary deadline), I can’t crucify them for it.
Seriously, how odd is that attitude? If Johnson & Johnson made a similar gaffe, segments of our society would be all over them asking how such a massive corporation with so many smart employees could let such a blatant error slip through the cracks. And we’d all quietly snigger at their stupidity.
And yet, and yet, and yet, Google is just a bunch of guys (& gals) making stuff, and who’s perfect all the time, right?
I actually prefer this attitude to the one I hold to “traditional” American corporations like J&J. It makes me happier to not constantly worry about how a major corporation is screwing me over (frex: Shrink Ray Consumables, which is the sort of behavior we expect most of the time). I just wonder why Google gets a benefit of the doubt in my own mind that I don’t pass along to any other company of similar stature. Why do I feel like, deep down, Google has my best interest at heart, when the truth is that what I represent to them as an internet user is data-mining cash.
In essence, does Google benefit from their Web 2.0 business model (i.e., here’s stome stuff for free…except it really isn’t free, because we’re going to use the content/data/trends you generate using this tool to make money somewhere else). Is it because I don’t feel like a direct consumer of Google services that I don’t get to treat them like a Johnson & Johnson? Am I not as critical because I feel like I’m getting something for free?
Why do I trust you, Google?
Filed under: Miscellany Tagged: | EULA, Google Chrome, In Google We Trust
You can’t trust Google.
They are naive hypocrits.
They are evil.
They cooperate with the Chinese government in suppressing access and information over the world wide web. Thank goodness the chink is smart enough to use proxy server.
Got Evil?
I’d forgotten about the Chinese dissident angle, even with all the press it got a couple of years ago (leading up to the Olympics). Excellent point, Prof.
Then again, “dissident” isn’t even a fair characterization if this wikipedia article is to be believed. Helping to spy on an entire downtrodden population (even inadvertantly) is, indeed, pretty evil.
Of course, the Google-hugger in me says, “That’s what they’re telling the media. What are they doing behind the scenes to undermine Chinese spying that they can’t tell us about because it would compromise their efforts?”
Which goes back to my thesis: I wouldn’t think such a bizarrely altruistic thing about any other megacorp. Why does Google get a pass?