And Google remains silent…
Oftentimes I am asked how Google reacted to the “Google Trap”. Had they threatened to sue or had they commented in any way to the numerous reproaches made? Nothing. To this day there has not been an official or an unofficial comment by Google to the “Google-Trap”. Except for one interview with the European Policy Counsel of Google - “Google’s liaison officer for political issues”, Annette Kroeber-Riel, was confronted by Silicon.de with facts from the book and simply considered them to be “rumours and speculations.” So far, Google has not made an official statement, because they want to avoid that the discussions about the topics in the book, which are now increasingly discussed in various media, continue to become more intensive.
Shrewd
Google is up to every PR trick: the best reaction to criticism is not to react and to continue providing the Internet community with positive news. People should not get the wrong ideas. A recent example is the article “Voyage through the Google-Republic”, which was published on the “Futurezone” yesterday.
It included a very amusing paragraph:
This is what Google says
Google spokesman Kay Oberbeck answered the question, why large website operators in Germany and Austria ignore their information-responsibility towards users (whereby Google’s own user terms were clearly breached), with: this is a “good question” and he would try to get more information if sanctions were being imposed. ORF.at has now been waiting for more than two weeks for his answer.
Futurezone will have to wait for a long time, since Google-spokesman Oberbeck is known for not answering critical questions and sweeping problems under the table. It is Google’s PR tactic to play “dead” if matters become too hot.
Google is everything but an “open” corporation; it only pretends to be one. Google was confronted with two dozen critical questions, while I researched facts for my book, and I, too, had to wait for many weeks before I received an answer. After having contacted Oberbeck on his cell phone, he said that he had reacted to my questions – most of them were answered with the usual “we cannot comment on this” or “we are not allowed to comment on this”.
Therefore I appeal to everybody who wants more background on Google and who is not interested in their self-adulation and only positive-stories, which are published by various Google-blogs: put more pressure on Google and force them to take a stand on all topics you confront them with. Data protection and privacy concerns us all.
+ I would be interested to find out, if and how the implementation of Google Analytics is legally covered. This free of charge web analysis tool is an obvious prying program.
+ Who has access to the collected data, why does Google cooperate with authorities in totalitarian states, etc.?
There is a long list of questions. I am planning to publish them online soon… maybe we, as users, can find answers, especially if Google continues to remain silent.
