Category: Government
May 24th, 2007
Google declares war on $2 trillion health care industry
The Google health care die has been cast, it is a $2 trillion declaration of medical intent.
Adam Bosworth, Google Vice preisdent Engineering, is no longer content with “touch-feely” consumer reach-out campaigns to “learn” what the “health care consumer” wants, he is now doing what Google does best: Telling the world how it will be.
It WILL be Google’s “vision for the future of health care.”
Those on the winning medical team will go the Googley way, or it’s the Google medical information highway.
Google scary now? Personal Health Records, sponsored by Google, next I warned one month ago. That day is nearing.
In Google’s medical push I present Bosworth’s health care (pay for the right to perform) IT road show underway over the past six months. Bosworth’s most recent stop was the American Medical Association of Informatics, and it was a big one, a $2 trillion one.
YES, in order to organize, ie. controll, all the world’s information, Google needs to remake the health care system in a Googley image.
The Google medical call, for “the next decade”:
Discovery - Consumers should be able to discover the most relevant health information possible
Action - Consumers should have direct access to personalized services to help them get the best and most convenient possible health support
Community - Consumers should be able to learn from and educate those in similar health circumstances and from their health practitioners
As is the Google fashion, the $150 billion corporation’s massive takeover designs on the largest sector of the U.S. economy encompassing the most personally sensitive issues of relevance to individuals, Google is packaging and pushing its $2 trillion medical war as a principled fight, one that Google is taking upon its benevolent shoulders to wage on behalf of the world’s consumers.
The Bosworth call to consumer arms (Les Misearables score optional):
Putting Health Into the Patient’s Hands
The vision for the future of health care starts with the premise that consumers should own their own total personal health and wellness data (PHW) and that only consumers, not insurers, not government, not employers, and not even doctors, but only consumers, should have complete control over how it is used.
Consumers rule in the Googley world of health care? Who needs medical professionsls?
The Bosworth spiel is incredible not only in its condescending dismissiveness of credentialed health care specialists, but for the incredulous Google pitch that a Google branded health care system WILL put consumers in charge.
“Only consumers should have complete control” over how their medical information is used? If Google REALLY believes that, why does it also claim that Google’s worldwide server farms are the place for consumer health care safekeeping!
After all, once in the Google cloud, always in the Google cloud, under Google’s intractable and unilateral control.
SEE: Google privacy jungle: Where is YOUR data? Don’t ask! and Google user data cloud: Do you trust it?
Bosworth assets: “We believe consumers should have the right to all data that is about their personal health and wellness in electronic form.”
Of course Google touts consumers should have the “right” to hand over all their private, personal, confidential medical data to Google for massive digitization and archiving for perpetuitiy within the confines of Google, Inc.
Worried about Google the world’s librarian? How about Google the world’s doctor!
MORE: Google battles Microsoft for medical domination and
Google wants $4 billion drug ad market in 23andMe
May 19th, 2007
Google sweet talks its way to political power
WELCOME TO THE GOOGLE CANDY BAR!
Alright everybody gather ’round
The Candy Man is here
What kind of candy do you want
Sweet choc’late
Choc’late malted candy
Gum drops
Anything you want
You’ve come to the right man
‘Cause I’m the Candy Man
Sammy Davis Jr., sang it, Personal Democracy “Sponsored by Google” lived it.
Yesterday’s Google funded “Technology is Changing Politics” conference extravaganza was a masterful Google PR cum Business Development stroke, undoubtedly had by Google for a very reasonable price.
The “wild, wild west” MySpace sprung for evening wrap-up cocktails; “All is good” Google paid for the right to make all of the “Personal Democracy” world “taste good.”
Oh, who can take tomorrow (who can take tomorrow)
Dip it in a dream (dip it in a dream)
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream
The Candy Man (the Candy Man)
Oh, the Candy Man can (the Candy Man can)
The Candy Man can
‘Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good
(Makes the world taste good)
What is the new Googley candy man really pushing though?
Bowls and bowls of gooey, floursecent colored sweetness were laid out, tempting attendees with an irrestible Google funded sugar fix between each “Personal Democracy” session. (Halloween style make-your-own Google candy bags for the road were an added bonus.)
What was the route to the good tasting Google world? NOT follow the yellow brick road for no place like home, but jump over the Google primary color rug spheres for no place like Google.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt headlined the Forum his company sponsored.
SEE Google CEO Schmidt on ‘Personal Democracy’: Up For Sale
Google even accorded Google “Scholarships” to a few dozen political Web enthusiasts, waiving the conference fee to promote “participation.”
Is Google dolling out political treats though, or is a new Googley brand of political tricks on the horizon.
Google flexes political muscle in presidential campaign 2008 and Google, YouTube target $80 million political ad spend, already.
Google is not only the “gateway to the Internet,” it aims to be the virtual Universe.
SEE Why Google Search will NOT rule the Universe!
Schmidt is well aware of the power his company wields. What impact does Google have on the world?
“I don’t know that the Internet is more important than health care, but it almost is,” people need access to the (Google) Internet, for access to the modern world, Schmidt said.
Speaking of health care, Schmidt spoke in depth about it recently at the Googleplex, Google’s version of it that is, in a tete a tete with perhaps the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton.
The result? Between Schmidt’s charm and Googlers’ money, Hillary for President is also Hillary for Google branded Personal Health Records.
SEE Google CEO gets Clinton support for Google Health initiative and Google scary now? Personal Health Records, sponsored by Google, next
What else IS next in the all is good Google world?
Sergey Brin proudly underscores to Wall Street that there is no obvious ceiling to Google monetization. There is obviously no ceiling to Google’s ambition for power, as well.
May 11th, 2007
Google at Risk: YouTube class action lawsuit changes DMCA copyright game
YouTube class action lawsuit: Has YOUR copyright been infringed?
So asks Proskauer Rose LLP and Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, the law firms prosecuting the action of The Football Association Premier League Limited, et. al. v. YouTube, Inc., et al., a copyright infringement class action pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, as of one week ago today.
What does it portend? For Google, YouTube, rights holders…I spoke with partners at Proskauer Rose to get an inside take on what is at stake.
Louis Solomon is co-chair of the firm's Litigation Department and William Hart is a copyright and intellectual property specialist.
Solomon and Hart underscored to me that for Proskauer Rose, the copyright infringement class action is designed to provide the “thousands of individuals and entities” that believe they were injured as a result of copyright infringement at YouTube the ability to litigate on a level playing field against the "large, well-funded corporation" that is Google.
A class action allows many people who would never have brought an individual action to rely on a lead plaintiff to prosecute the case for them, Proskauer Rose asserts.
Why is that important?
Both Solomon and Hart are “convinced” not only of the legal groundings of the class action, but of the legal import of holding “Google accountable” for a seeming wanton disregard for rights holders, all copyright owners, regardless of size and resources.
The class action has already spurred interest from a diverse array of content producers and copyright holders well beyond the lead plaintiffs of Premier League and Bourne, according to Proskauer Rose, such as:
Independent Film Producers
Typically holding the exculsive rights to the films, including for Interent exploitation. Many of these films are posted in their entirety, and easily avoid YouTube’s 10 minute clip limitation by seriatim postings. Some films are posted before commercial release.Animation Companies
Animation, in feature and series length programs, is heavily infringed on YouTube; these include works with well-known characters, with enormous licensing value.Singer/Songwriter/Performers
Many own the rights to their own songs and recordings or filmed performances, including several “household names,” who have not authorized the exploitation of their material on the Internet. Some of this content is apparently “ripped” from DVD by users and other material includes bootleg concert performances.
At YouTube, “Google is acting outside the norm of the DMCA statute, not even close, they don’t fit it,” Hart asserted to me.
Why is Google’s YouTube business model in direct contradiction with the spirit of DMCA 512C?
Hart told me Google is exploiting the content of others for its "own direct financial benefit,” YouTube is not operating purely as a “storage” vehicle for content uploaded to YouTube.
What’s more, the Google position that it can not be aware of what content is actually at YouTube is an incredulous one, Hart believes:
They are getting takedown notices. Technology can block uploads. They made a choice not to mitigate. That was their decision, they are contributing to the infringement.
Proskauer Rose on the “filtering” issue:
A number of different companies offer content filtering and tracking solutions for Internet content. The issue was raised more than two years ago before the Supreme Court in the Grokster case; several of these companies filed an amicus brief to make it clear that the failure to adopt such technology was a choice and the technology, even as of January, 24, 2005, existed to separate infringing and non-infringing audio-content, to inhibit piracy and to prevent the posting of illegal content on ISP networks.
Obviously, there have been significant developments since that time, not only in the areas of audio for video fingerprinting, but in the fingerprinting of visual images.
For Proskauer Rose, the significance of the class action goes beyond the specific matter and parties involved. While class actions get a “bad rap,” Solomon told me, he believes in this “cause.”
Hart collaborates with Jon Baumgarten, former U.S. Copyright Office General Counsel, in the Proskauer Rose copyright practice. According to the firm, it has had:
A first-hand role in developing copyright law in the courts, by the legislative process, and in drafting the regulations by which these laws are administered.
Our lawyers have been instrumental in the complex multi-industry development and licensing of new copy protection technologies pertaining to DVD audio and video, digital television and Internet distribution content and products; our lawyers have successfully litigated an array of landmark cases, from key fair-use decisions (Texaco, Kinko's) and some of the leading Internet decisions (Lerma, Netcom) to cases in such diverse areas of copyright as choreography (Balanchine), architecture (Demetriades) and stage productions (Radio City).
Solomon told me that while the class action against Google’s YouTube is “risky for us,” because “we don’t get paid unless the judge decides we do good for the class,” he believes the fight is a principled one and a winnable one.
Hart underscored that the class action seeks to make a “positive, structural” difference, in the spirit of class action societal successes such as:
Toxic Tort: (popularized by the Eric Brockovich movie) residents of Hinkley, California, sued Pacific Gas & Electric and achieved not only substantial financial settlements, but ALSO changes in defendant’s environmental practices and remediated contamination.
Strom v. Boeing: Boeing compensated plaintiffs AND agreed to provide annual medical examinations to 700 workers and change toxic exposure practices.
El Paso Natural Gas: Monetary compensation PLUS extensive structural relief to ensure reliable gas supply in California.
Will the class action of The Football Association Premier League Limited, et. al. v. YouTube, Inc., et al., a copyright infringement class action pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, one day also be in the class action record books for having required Google to pay substantial financial settlements AND change its “massively copyright infringing” business model?
May 9th, 2007
Web content DNA Map: Copyright control, monetization online
What is the Web’s copyright content DNA?
Can it be mapped, tracked and appropriately monetized?
Jim Brock believes so, and so does the company he founded, Attributor.
Brock, Attributor co-founder and CEO, addressed the Magazine Publishers of America in New York City last week on how to “generate revenue and maintain control of your content as you release it online.”
Can it be done? I met with Brock to find out how Attributor aims to “legitimize content monetization.”
Attributor is a $10 million VC backed start-up addressing “content originality online.” Currently in “stealth-mode,” Brock told me he is readying a launch of an Attributor beta service.
Attributor’s technology analyzes publishers’ original content published to the Web–text, images, audio, video–with the goal of providing "visibility” as to if, when and how it is subsequently re-used by third-parties online.
Brock told me Attributor conducts 40 million Web crawls a day to monitor the activity of Attributor digitally fingerprinted content at targeted news sites, blogs, entertainment sites, social networks…
If content reuse is identified, “rules of use” specified by content owners trigger match reports prioritizing remediation actions at the “offending” site, such as requests for licensing, replacement, or removal of the proprietary content.
The Attributor system:
1) Attributor digitally fingerprints pieces of individual content with “Attributor DNA” for unique feature identification,
2) Content owners assign rules of use to be associated with the unique “Attributor DNA”, such as how much can be re-used, required attribution and commercial exploitation terms,
3) Attributor scans the Web to identify unauthorized uses of “Attributor DNA” and automatically develops plans for remedial action, such as content removal or licensing requests.
4) Content owners have direct access to “Attributor DNA” status for monitoring and control.
Legitimate syndication and monetization of copyright content is the end game, Brock says. Attributor aims to “empower publishers of all kinds to understand and unlock the value of their content” and support a “vibrant content economy through transparency and accountability in content re-use.”
The Attributor pitch to content owners is:
We make it easy for potential licensees, search engines, and content hosts to know that you’re the owner of your content, which allows you to distribute your content more freely with assurance that you can capture the value you create
Attributor initiatives for content owners will include both a no-fee searchable public registry and for-fee custom monitoring services, Brock told me.
We are in “the early days of a global content economy,” Brock believes. Attributor was founded to “provide the transparency and accountability necessary for this new marketplace to achieve its full potential,” he proudly notes.
ALSO Digimarc: Will defendant Google bite the copyright infringement bullet?
May 6th, 2007
Reagan, Schwarzenegger win big in Republican debate campaign 2008
Digital Markets Blog presidential campaign 2008 special series on what I am calling “User Generated Politics”
The Republican 2008 presidential campaign field blew its first chance to engage with the American public, big time.
Who DID the slate of ten Republican hopefuls engage with at the party’s first debate held at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California on Thursday?
President Ronald Reagan, his wife Nancy and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The evening was uninspired, uneventful, mismanaged and perhaps the worst indictment for a televised event: BORING!
From the get go, the stage of Republican candidates presented a stark visual contrast to the Democratic field which debated the week before.
(see Giuliani vs. McCain? It’s debatable and Hillary Clinton in command for ‘when’ President)
Ten Republican presidential candidates debated; Ten (all seemingly old) white men talking amongst themselves.
Eight Democrat candidates debated: Old and not so; Male and female; White and Hispanic and Black…with sometimes sharp barbs from “outsiders” Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel.
Gravel: Some of these people frighten me. When you have main-line candidates that turn around and say that there's nothing off the table with respect to Iran, that's code for using nukes, nuclear devices.
Kucinich to Barack Obama: You're setting the stage for another war.
No Republican "color" or fireworks, however.
The first question of the Republican debate came from a (he’s no Brian Williams) moderator Chris Matthews, an opening set-up for an ode to Reagan.
Matthews: Mayor Giuliani, how do we get back to Ronald Reagan's morning in America?
Giuliani: What we can borrow from Ronald Reagan, since we are in his library, is that great sense of optimism that he had. He led by building on the strengths of America, not running America down. And we're a country that people love to come to, they want to come to this country with a shining city on the hill.
Those are the things that Ronald Reagan taught us: You lead from optimism.
Mitt Romney: Well, if you wanted to have a president that just followed the polls, all we need to do is plug in our TVs and have them run the country. But that's not what America wants. It's not what America needs. We need leadership that's strong and that shows America what we can do to lead the world.
Ronald Reagan was a president of strength. His philosophy was a philosophy of strength: a strong military, a strong economy and strong families.
Giuliani on potential terrorist showdowns: (They have to) look at an American president and see Ronald Reagan. Remember, they looked in Ronald Reagan's eyes, and in two minutes, they released the hostages.
Moderator: One of our prized guests here today, Governor Schwarzenegger — looking this man in the eye, answer this question — I'm going to go down the line, starting with Governor Romney. Should we change our Constitution, which we believe is divinely inspired to allow men like Mel Martinez, the chairman of your party, born in Cuba, great patriot, the senator from Florida, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to stand here some night?
Romney: Nver given that a lot of thought, but with Arnold sitting there, I'll give it some thought, but probably not.
Mike Huckabee: After I've served eight years as president, I'd be happy to change the Constitution for Governor Schwarzenegger.
Duncan Hunter: We haven't seen his endorsement yet, that's a no.
John McCain: Depends on whether he endorses me or not.
Giuliani: When he called me up to endorse him, he got me on the phone, he said, "Will you endorse me?", and I was too afraid to say no. I would say yes.
Tom Tancredo: Intimidating as he might be, I'm saying no.
Moderator: Governor Romney, Daniel Duchovnik from Walnut Creek, California, wants to know: What do you dislike most about America?
Romney: Gosh. I love America. I'm afraid I'm going to be at a loss for words because America for me is not just our rolling mountains and hills and streams and great cities. It's the American people. And the American people are the greatest people in the world. What makes America the greatest nation in the world is the heart of the American people.
It's that optimism we thank Ronald Reagan for. Thank you, Mrs. Reagan, for opening up this place in his memory for us. It is that optimism about this great people that makes this the greatest nation on earth.
If the Republicans are so keen on “being like Ronald,” they ought to have put on a Reagan worthy performance!
More in this Digital Markets Special Series:
Obama trounces Clinton in online campaign money grab STAY TUNED TO THIS DIGITAL MARKETS BLOG FOR CONTINUING COVERAGE OF WHAT I AM CALLING “USER GENERATED POLITICS” 2008
Hillary Clinton snags $4.2 million online
Obama and Clinton tussle over women
Google, YouTube target $80 million political ad spend
Hillary Clinton, Democrats lead Republicans in Web race to the White House
Google wins big as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battle
April 30th, 2007
Google zeal breeds more identity theft risks
Google CEO Eric Schmidt continues on his never ending quest to “organize” ALL of the world’s information, including ALL of the world’s citizens’ personal information.
Google proudly announces today: “partnerships with the states of Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia to make it easier to search for hard-to-find public information on state government websites.”
Hard to find no more. Thanks? to Google.
What “hard-to-find” information about the citizens of the states of Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia will no longer be hard to find at Google.com as well?
Individuals’ Social Security numbers, for starters.
According to Google:
These partnerships developed as both Google and officials with the four state governments recognized that the public is increasingly turning to search engines like Google to access government services, but that a significant share of the information on state agency websites is not included in its index of information sources on the web. As a result, many online government services can be difficult for the public to find.
In January 2007 comments to the Identity Theft Task Force of the Federal Trade Commission, The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) stated:
Government and private agencies that collect and store excessive amounts of often unnecessary personal information in systems that lack adequate privacy and security safeguards. The best long-term approach to the problem of identity theft is to minimize the collection of personal information and to develop alternative technologies and organizational practices.
Minimize the collection of personal information by the government? That is NOT search engine music to Google’s ears:
J.L. Needham, who manages Google's public-sector content partnerships, said at least 70% of visitors to government websites get there by using commercial search engines. But too often, he said, Web searches do not turn up the information people are looking for simply because government computer systems aren't programmed in a way that allows commercial search engines to access their databases.
Still, if users can't get the information they're looking for, they blame the search engine, not the government, Needham lamented. The remedy, which Google has been working on with state technology officers for roughly six months, is to create virtual roadmaps by which search engines can find the databases that store public records.
"We have a vested interest in ensuring that the results we provide in every area, including government services, are high-quality, authoritative and trustworthy," he said (as cited by the Associated Press).
Vested Google interest in the personal records of state residents indeed.
Marc Rotenberg, EPIC executive director though said many public health and financial records shouldn't necessarily be widely available because they often contain citizens' Social Security numbers.
Among much other personal, private, NO need for Google’s spiders to know data.
ALSO: Google user data cloud: Do you trust it? and
Google vs. Google on privacy, or not and
Google plots server farm land grab in Europe
April 28th, 2007
Google CEO gets Clinton support for Google Health initiative
Google CEO Eric Schmidt to Hillary Clinton: Welcome to Google!
Senator Hillary Clinton: I am thrilled to be at the “best place to work in America” that is “helping to invent the future” and has “revolutionized the way we live, work, think…”
So began a one on one in February between the leader of one of the most powerful corporations in the world and the Democratic frontrunner in the race to become the next leader of the most powerful country in the world.
The Clinton chat with Schmidt before an audience of Googlers took place after Clinton privately meet at the Googleplex with Silicon Valley leaders.
The Schmidt led Q & A offered presidential candidate Clinton an opportunity to present her stands on major election issues, such as Iraq, the environment…
Schmidt concluded the chat by offering Senator Clinton an opportunity to also present her stands on major issues of concern to Google, such as Google’s medical push.
Schmidt set-up to Clinton:
These are the people that make Google a success. You are a Google user. How can Google help your vision happen?
Clinton return:
When Eric was showing me around, we stopped at the Google Health team office, we can not get to Universal Health Care coverage unless we have a much better information base that is very reliable that people can turn to make decisions on their own, to be empowered as consumers of health care, that is something I know you are working on and we really need you to be aggressively pursuing that.
We do need more Information Technology generally in health care, if you’ve gone to a new doctor, they probably took a new history on paper, they probably don’t have electronic medical records, if you go to a doctor out of state, they’ll have to do it all over again, because they probably can’t transfer what you have at your doctor.
The health sector is woefully deficient in Information Technology, any way you can help us move our health sector into the 21st century will help us to get a base of information on which we can make better decisions to provide health care for everybody.
Sound familiar to the December 2006 “Connecting Americans to Their Health Care: Empowered Consumers, Personal Health Records and Emerging Technologies” speech of Google Vice President Adam Bosworth?
YES. See Google scary now? Personal Health Records, sponsored by Google, next for exactly how familiar.
April 27th, 2007
Hillary Clinton in command for 'when' President
Digital Markets Blog presidential campaign 2008 special series on what I am calling “User Generated Politics”
An in command Hillary Clinton sought to assure the American public last evening that she is ready and able to command the U.S. armed forces in decisive action if needed, “when” she is President of the United States.
Eight Democrats lock horns (online): So what? in the first democratic debate of the 2008 presidential campaign. Not really, as I previewed yesterday. No fireworks, as was the prudent political strategy for front-runners Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.
The Clinton campaign message is that despite Hillary’s lead in polls, their woman will win the democratic nomination the old fashioned way, by earning it one voter at a time.
Clinton reached out to millions of voters yesterday, as did the other seven Democratic contenders. The mainstream candidates went after President George Bush though, not each other.
Mandy Grunwald, a Clinton adviser, said of her candidate, in the aptly called “Spin Room”: "She was the most presidential. I would not say there were losers, she was the strongest candidate."
Obama advisor, David Axelrod, characterized the debate as a “drive-by,” noting it was difficult “to really have thoughtful dialogue on a lot of issues.”
There were no major “sound bite” gaffes from any of the well known rivals. There were also no significant “one liner” homeruns.
The majority of contenders stumbled during one or more key answers. Who was the “winner” then, in terms of substance and form?
Clinton did indeed present the most polished and accomplished performance, with a veneer of genuine sincerity. Assured and in command, with appropriate touches of humility, Clinton presented a visual and verbal case for why she is the Democrat with the necessary experience, qualities and will for leading the country “WHEN” she is President.
More in this Digital Markets Special Series:
Obama trounces Clinton in online campaign money grab STAY TUNED TO THIS DIGITAL MARKETS BLOG FOR CONTINUING COVERAGE OF WHAT I AM CALLING “USER GENERATED POLITICS” 2008
Hillary Clinton snags $4.2 million online
Obama and Clinton tussle over women
Google, YouTube target $80 million political ad spend
Hillary Clinton, Democrats lead Republicans in Web race to the White House
Google wins big as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battle
April 24th, 2007
For sale: Giuliani, Obama, Dodd
Digital Markets Blog presidential campaign 2008 special series on what I am calling “User Generated Politics”
Want to show your support for your favorite presidential candidate, but don't have the big political bucks for a donation? How about flying a Rudy Giuliani pennant instead, or sporting a green for the enviornment Chris Dodd button.
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Get your Rudy gear touts Rudy Giuliiani for President 2008 Online Store, such as a 9" x 24" pennant made of rigid felt material, $9.95, proudly made in the U.S.A.
For $125, organize your own Obama rally with at turnkey support pack:
4 Obama for President Logo T-Shirts
50 Obama for President Logo Buttons
50 Obama for President Bumper Stickers
100 Obama for President Logo Lapel Stickers
10 Obama for President Logo Rally Signs
More in this Digital Markets Special Series:
Hillary Clinton: Throw me a party, Thursday!
Obama trounces Clinton in online campaign money grab
Hillary Clinton snags $4.2 million online
Obama and Clinton tussle over women
Google, YouTube target $80 million political ad spend
Hillary Clinton, Democrats lead Republicans in Web race to the White House
Google wins big as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battle
STAY TUNED TO THIS DIGITAL MARKETS BLOG FOR CONTINUING COVERAGE OF WHAT I AM CALLING “USER GENERATED POLITICS” 2008
April 24th, 2007
Google scary now? Personal Health Records, sponsored by Google, next
“Good and scary,” so headlined Anil Dash of the new Google “Web History” user tracking tool.
“Google’s privacy nightmare just starting,” so declared Om Malik, noting a Washington Post story of a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking an injunction against the announced Google purchase of DoubleClick.
But no, the present privacy backlash against Google is not a first, far from it.
The Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group expressed their privacy concerns to the FTC last November in a “Complaint and Request for Inquiry and Injunctive Relief Concerning Unfair and Deceptive Online Marketing Practices.”
Google was cited, along with Yahoo and Microsoft:
The policies governing consumer privacy on the Interent have failed to keep pace with the developments that continue to re-shape the online world…
Consumers entering this new online world are neither informed of nor prepared for these technologies and techniques—including data gathering and mining, audience targeting and tracking—that render users all but defenseless before the sophisticated assault of new-media marketing…
Current privacy disclosure policies are totally inadequate, failing to effectively inform users how and what data are being collected and used.
Last month, Google trumpeted it is “taking steps to further improve our privacy practices.” WHY, though? Because it was under pressure from “leading privacy stakeholders in Europe.”
Google hardly flinched, however, as I dissected in Google CEO wants your personal information.
Personal information includes individuals’ medical histories, and Google is setting its sights on those as well.
Adam Bosworth, Google Vice President Engineering (sometimes known as “Archtiect, Google Health”), “Connecting Americans to Their Health Care: Empowered Consumers, Personal Health Records and Emerging Technologies,” December 7, 2006:
Every ill person needs a “health URL,” an online meeting place where their caregivers, with express permission from the ill person, can come together, pass on notes to each other, review each others’ notes, look at the medical data, and suggest courses of action…online Web applications 101.
The Google cloud will undoubtedly soon be to the "Web applications 101" rescue. In Google’s medical push I trace Bosworth’s mission, a medical one, evangelizing that “increased and more targeted use of technology will help improve healthcare for all.”
How so? Personal Health Records, courtesy of the Google cloud.
Bosworth has top honors at the American Medical Informatics Association conference next month, delivering the keynote address at the opening session: “Putting Health into the Patient's Hands, Consumerism and Health Care”:
Consumers are more and more active when it comes to their health. Every day an enormous number of people use Google to learn more about an illness, drug or a treatment, or simply to research a condition or diagnosis. How do you make patients more empowered and informed about their healthcare decisions?
Google is a “Sponsor” of the meeting, at a cost of up to $25,000, designed to position Google as an “Informatics and Health Information Technology leader.”
A key track of the conference is “Personal Health Records”:
Personal Health Records (PHRs) have recently been proclaimed “the hottest thing in HIT right now.” The role of the first generation of PHR in the broader scheme of electronic health record systems, what it looks like now, and what future PHR might be if conceptualized as part of an individual's personal health system and how it will interact in a fully-functioning interoperable health system.
Google, of course, wants to “organize” ALL the “world’s information,” in the Google cloud. Why wouldn’t it seek to be at the heart of “a fully-functioning interoperable health system”?
In Beware: Google cloud platform exposed I analyze privacy implications of Google’s new “Web History” service and data security risks of its cloud based Web services, Google Apps:
Rational people and companies are rightly concerned about housing their information in the Google cloud due to risks concerning data integrity, security, privacy, access, control and manipulation.
Below is a visual on the implications of prospective “Personal Health Records,” sponsored by Google, an excerpt of a medical student’s blog (Over my med body) post, with Google “content” as “useful” as the medical student's writings.
ALSO:Google Health URL trumped by Steve Case?
Google and Wal-Mart diagnose $4 trillion health care market
Microsoft to battle Google in online healthcare
Google vs. Google on privacy, or not
Google, YouTube double down on user tracking: DoubleClick next up
Google to tag users across Web: Privacy Boomerang?
Google Office enterprise security snafu
Google to Calendar users: Read the instructions
Health Care IT: $31 billion ‘perfect storm’
Google’s YouTube: Not so dirty little secrets
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