Another conversation you didn't know you were having

Let's start (or end?) with this post from Alyssa.
Especially the notion that Google is too good not to use, that we have to redefine privacy, that we need to figure out why we're willing not to care. And Lisa says we don't care.
The thing is, just the sheer prevalence of Google is a kind of power.
Here's Kevin on what happens when you use. Sheila knows a lot about cookies and spyware. M. Fitz doesn't like cookies so much anymore.

Matt D. is a good reporter, so he tried to pin down what Google does. Courtney A. pursued this question to all kinds of different levels. Who's in control? What kinds of information is truly surrendered. What about IP addresses? Is Google kind of an alternate consciousness, sorting all our questions and choices? Allison says Google is her best friend. But then she and her real friends thought about that a little more. We might want to discuss Jess's analogy to a drug dealer. Is Google a privacy time bomb?

Don't be evil? Jessica and Courtney A. discovered that was quietly decomissioned. why? Courtney isn't sure it ever meant anything anyway. Sheila seems to agree. I like the Lithwick reference -- the ranking system. Jessica thinks the two questions are inextricably linked. The motto and how Google exercises its basic function are inextricably linked. Matt wonders whether the slogan would really ever prohibit the company from doing something. Like, for example, putting in cookies that study what you look at even when you're not using Google. M. Fitz suggests that one's person's good may be another person's evil. I'm guessing that the bright line in our room will be age., that younger users like Greg won't be terribly bothered by the nature of Google and will be OK with its claim not to be evil. But Greg also believes in a kind of Lockean response to Google. Vive la common sense and les natural laws! Lisa doubts the boys of Google are mature enough to have a fully developed notion of good and evil worth paying heed to. The more you guys blog, the more Mephistophelean the pact seems to me.

If you don't read each other's blogs, you miss a lot! Check out Jessica's Google instruction videos.