We’re currently trialling Office Web Apps and Google Apps as part of our big collaboration test this year. Our intention is to use these tools to do a better job and offer more for our clients – particularly for the start-ups launching new products, where we need to give more help in getting the product to market.
Product Design Consultancy is a complex activity involving a lot of disciplines and people putting in their own ideas, information and decisions. So we need a better system than we have now (emailing documents around) enabling everyone in Realise, our Network of partners, other suppliers and clients to collaborate on projects. For us as a small business, Google Apps and other online collaboration software is a low enough cost to make this possible.
But actually what cost could we pay in future? Are we potentially selling our souls? Product Design does involve sensitive intellectual property (IP) which does make me question the safety of all this data we could be lobbing online. This data in it’s static form is one thing. It’s highly unlikely that our client project information would be stolen from Google Docs.
It’s really the bigger long term picture that I think we must keep an eye on. These services are encouraging us to store or reveal all online. When clever people can mine, link, track and compare the data from billions of people, then they have something of very high potential value. And the trouble with very high potential value is it becomes very attractive to other interests to exert their own influence.
This this is fine if Google is always firmly led by highly principled hippy folks who only have the world’s peace, love and enlightenment at heart… But how do Larry and Sergey know they haven’t already got grey people in Google plotting their rise to the top, the kind of people who don’t see privacy as such a big deal? Various national laws mean that Google is duty bound to hand over your data if you’ve been doing things you shouldn’t have. What if Governments start passing new laws? Or large corporations can argue it’s in the best interests of everyone that this data is used to maintain economic stability? After all, who cares if some baddies get caught after stupidly talking about their wrongdoings online? Try telling that to Chinese people protesting about human rights violations or the pollution of their village water.
Of course I’d love it if in 50 years time Google is still the friend of the people, providing great value to the world by freely serving up information cheaply and easily to ensure society is stronger and we all lead better lives. But as they say the superhighway to hell is paved with good intentions. Sadly I forecast we’re going to have to start being much more careful about what we put online. I’ll leave the last word on privacy to Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt appearing on CNBC last month:
