Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google Inc.
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This is the other side of the Google story, the unauthorized book that Google does not want you to read. In it, the author, a Google expert shows that the world's most powerful company is not who it pretends to be. Google pretends to be a harmless lamb, but chose a full size model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex as its mascot. Beware the T Rex in sheep's clothing. Google has acquired far more information, both public and private, and has invented more ways to use it, than anyone in history. Information is power, and in Google's case, it is the power to influence and control virtually everything the Internet touches. Google's power is largely unchecked, unaccountable, and grossly underestimated. Google is the Internet's lone superpower, the new master of the digital information universe. And Google's power depends almost entirely on the blind trust it has gained through masterful duplicity. Google routinely says one thing and does another. The author proves the world's number one brand untrustworthy. He exposes the unethical company hiding behind a "don't be evil" slogan. He uncovers Google's hidden political agenda. And he reveals how Google's famed mission to organize the world's information is destructive and wrong. He critically examines where Google is leading us, explain why we do not want to go there, and proposes solutions. Google's centralization of power over the world's information is corrupting both Google and the Internet, a natural result of unchecked power. Google is evolving from an information servant to master, from working for users, to making users work for the Internet behemoth. This book demonstrates that Google's goal is to change the world by influencing and controlling information access. Ultimately, Google's immense unchecked power is destructive precisely because Google is so political, unethical and untrustworthy. Learn how Google's pervasive tracking and profiling destroys privacy and individualism; Discover how Google Inc. uses its "Don't be evil" slogan to mask unethical business practices; Learn how Google's market dominance and free products threaten competition, innovation, job creation, and economic growth; Discover how Google's hidden political agenda threatens individual freedom, democracy, and national sovereignty; Understand the ramifications of Google imposing its radical values and ideology on the world.
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This book is a polemic. Styling himself as “the world's leading Google critic” in his dust jacket bio, Scott Cleland certainly has an ax to grind. Sadly, his points about Google's bad side get lost in vitriol, absurd jumps in reasoning in lieu of logic and misinterpretation of many of his sources make the book almost unreadable. It took me multiple tries to get through the book because it is so badly written. It is repetitive enough that the author could have covered the material in half the space or less. There is an attempt at organization in the chapter titles, but the contents of the chapters frequently has nothing to do with the titled subject.
Truly a disappointment of a book and for Mr. Cleland, a missed opportunity to raise some valid concerns over privacy and other societal issues and Google's unique profile as an Internet company. Written in 2011, there is some foresight about the directions the web is taking, but those issues are far from unique to Google. And although there is a wealth of material, key sources like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (https://eff.org) and others with similar privacy concerns are never mentioned.
