It was announced on Nov. 7 that Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, a loyal supporter of President-elect Barack Obama during his campaign, is a key member on the Transition Economic Advisory Board (TEAB). Google is on the new US Government’s Advisory Board!
Surprise? No! This fast? Yes!
@JonathanNelson predicted on Nov 5 that Eric Schmidt of Google will be USA’s first ever Chief Technology Officer (CTO):
I, too, have been wondering and discussing Google’s involvement in the new US Govt. under Obama’s leadership. But we don’t have a CTO, right? Not yet…
Should you be concerned?
Transition
What does Obama’s new “Transition Team” mean to you?
What type of transitions should the American people ready themselves for? No one knows, but we do know the Internet and technology will play a bigger role than ever before.
A post on Google Blogoscoped announced that Google’s Eric Schmidt has been chosen as one of Obama’s Economic Advisers. Eric Schmidt’s video in this post shows his endorsement of Obama in October and his discourse about how much the next President of the US understands the Internet.
Knowledge of the Internet, in itself, is good. We are technology-driven.
An article on TechCrunch talks about how Obama would not have won without the Internet. He deserves credit and kudos for being the best online candidate! Obama exhibited excellent marketing strategy in his use of online search advertising and Social Media participation. (Read a breadown of his $8 Million dollar online spend at ClickZ.)
Transitioning to the Internet is exciting, especially for an online marketer. But, how does this “transition” play out for us with our next President?
US Search?
Is the new US government going to be search-driven? Obama’s government will have a Chief Technology Officer.
ZDNet.co.uk reports on Obama’s search for a national CTO:
The person in this new position…could be given the directive to create new levels of transparency and access to government agencies…
“The fact that this is difficult is, in some ways, an example of why we might need a CTO,” said Alan Davidson, head of Google’s Washington office. “There is no one place for unified technology leadership in our executive branch right now.”
Unified technology? Unified technology leadership?
Are we transitioning into Big Brother? I hope not. Am I being alarmist? I hope so.
The government’s databases, however, may soon know a lot more about you due to the unknown new level of transparency.
A Google Merger?
Does Obama’s choice signal a merger of Google and the US govt.? Isn’t there a conflict of interest?
The Google and Yahoo merger was declared a “conflict of interest” by the Department of Justice on Nov. 5. The DOJ released this statement:
Yahoo! Inc. and Google Inc. abandoned their advertising agreement after the Department of Justice informed the companies that it would file an antitrust lawsuit to block the implementation of the agreement. The Department said that, if implemented, the agreement between these two companies accounting for 90 percent or more of each relevant market would likely harm competition in the markets for Internet search advertising and Internet search syndication.
Antitrust between Google and Yahoo! is a concern. However, Google and the US Govt, together? “Anti Trust,” for sure!
The DOJ statement on the antitrust issues also reads:
Google and Yahoo! are search engine companies. A search engine allows people to search for information on the Internet.
The Department’s investigation revealed that Internet search advertising and Internet search syndication are each relevant antitrust markets and that Google is by far the largest provider of such services, with shares of more than 70 percent in both markets.
Google has >70% share of Search & Search Advertising. <Ponder the scope of that DOJ premise.>
Who can we trust? Google with our new US Govt.? Isn’t this the ULTIMATE Antitrust case?
Here are some of the thoughts I’ve seen on Twitter so far today:
- “Does govt get access to my info that Google stores if Google CEO Eric Schmidt part of new govt?”
- “Obama’s list of econ advisors includes GOOG’s Schmidt? My enthusiasm dampening slightly…”
- “I so call BS on eric schmidt if @obama was for net neutrality why did he remove it from his website http://zi.ma/80986a … well”
- “hah! we’ll know if Eric Schmidt’s has any influence over Obama when we see Google Adsense ads on whitehouse.gov”
The TEAB
Some intelligent minds comprise Obama’s new TEAB. Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is a key member of this transition team. Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox, is also on the new TEAB as well. Why are so many corporate CEOs part of our new government? We are told the team’s goals are to develop a strong set of policies to respond to the economic crisis. I hope we are not relinquishing too much control in the name of crisis?
What are people talking about now that Google is on the TEAB team? Google and the government! I don’t see a lot of conversation or concern about Anne Mulcahy or Warren Buffet? Why? They don’t hold the controls to 70% of Search!
Opt In?
Remember, Google has 70% share of our technology-driven world, of us. We are search! We, the people, make up the databases of search.
We opt into Google to give them access to our information, our emails, our habits and behaviors:
- We “opt in” to the Google Toolbar to tell Google our every need and desire when we search.
- We “opt in” to Google Analytics to give information about our website traffic and visitors.
- We “opt in” to Google AdWords to share the value of our advertising dollar.
- We “opt in” to Gmail and give Google and AdWords information about our personal lives, including email attachments.
- We “opt in” to GTalk to share our chats and conversations.
- We “opt in” to Google Reader to share the information we favor and pull via RSS.
- We “opt in” to Google Apps to give information about our business processes and email discussions.
- We “opt in” to Google Docs to share about our documents, spreadsheets, presentations.
- We “opt in” to Google Desktop to search and index EVERY file on our hard drives, our personal thoughts and journals.
We check the “I agree” boxes and opt in to share…almost everything!
Separation of Search & State
So much for the controversy of separation of Church and State. Now we have Search and State!
I’m surprised we didn’t see this coming. The cry for change in the US has been huge and warranted. But that cry also involved asking the US government to step in and bail us out and take control. We also voted and opted in to give more control in this election. We may have opted into more than we realize with Google as part of the new government.
Consider…
- Should a CEO of the largest Search company in the world be part of making government policy?
- Isn’t there a conflict of interest?
- Is this an antitrust issue? For me, it’s an “anti trust” issue.
What can you do?
I’ve expressed concern about Google’s databases for months now. I’m guilty of opting in and have a love/hate relationship with them. I live Google as part of my daily work in SEO. But each of us can choose alternatives. We can control how much more information we share. It’s time to opt out.
Transition to non-Google properties and software where possible, with hopes they are not purchased by Google…or by our new US Government.
Let there be separation of Search & State!
Tags: Antitrust, Chief Technology Officer, Eric Schmidt, Google Yahoo Merger, Obama, TEAB, Transition Economic Advisory Board, US Govt
Oh boy. YOu hit a sore spot with me. I couldn’t agree more. i opt in to google analytics and adsense but i don’t use its other services, not even its tool bar because i saw this information collection stuff coming a long time ago. My big concern is making health records digital and accessible via Internet or a Browser or database somewhere. It was a push/proposal by Google months ago and i don’t know where it stands now but it could be the very undoing of our HIPPA rights. YES i see a major conflict of interest in a google executive being appointed to a new gov’t office. Its frightening. I tend to like the Internet in the way Wikipedia has developed (referencable facts built by the people). Yet even Wikipedia has had its share of conflict of interest. Yet, the “people” have kept that in check.
Still we give away our privacy every day using credit cards or mortgaging our homes. If you don’t use cash, you compromise your privacy. Telemarketing calls from competing mortagage companies used to infuriate me. Now those very companies who violated our privacy and annoyed us with calls are closing their doors (or not). Still, Google sleeping with our Gov’t makes it even easier than the credit industry to violate our privacy.
Sigh. Everything’s a scam. They’re all out to get you. Even paranoids have enemies.
Hi Dana,
I just found your excellent and uncannily coincidental comment on my post about Google Local and wrong directions to the hospital. I appreciated you coming by and sharing that with me, and responded to you over there.
The subject you are addressing here has definitely crossed my mind as well. The truth is, I think, we are all pretty much aware of the fact that corporations and the government have become inextricably linked. It’s a sorry situation. Bush has been totally tied up with what is undoubtedly the world’s most dreadful corporation of them all. With Obama, we are likely to have some serious intermixing with Google.
I can’t see us getting away from this situation, because of the capitalist nature of our society, but I think if given a choice, I’d rather have Obama tied up with Schmidt/Gore, than Bush tied up with Monsanto. I honestly think you are raising good points here, Dana, but I don’t see a way around it. I really don’t.
Miriam
Getting Local Stuff Done – Great Clients Make It Easier:
@WildDingo Thanks for the feedback! Agreed that Google sleeping with the government does open too many avenues for privacy invasion. Add medical records on top of that…ouch.
@MiriamEllis Nice to hear from you, and you’re right that the interchange between govt and corporations has crossed a threshold of no return. My concern is that Google has been keeping a record of every search we do with the goal of improved personalized search. I can’t imagine the government would use that information for our personal best interests, no matter who was in the White House.
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Been thinking about alternatives and what an individual can do? It is possible to opt out by turning off search history recording in the settings page of one’s Gmail account. Each person can also edit their history, including removing it entirely. Latest events with Schmidt’s appointment should make everyone aware of their actions and options to opt out.
Bottom line, I’m hoping there will be a separation of Search & State.