Staying Safe online and on Wattpad

PUP #13 Who's tracking you? The Collectors - Google

Regular readers of this book will know I've flagged up many of Google's less appealing practices but I have to admit their sheer tenacity and ruthless application is second to none. The internet would look very different without the Big G, although some believe it would be much, much safer. 96% of its enormous revenue comes from its advertising products. In 2011 it generated $36.5 billion dollars with another 10 billion and change coming from ad network clients – and that was six years ago when they were poorer than they are now! In a disturbing duopoly with Facebook, it controls the majority of ALL online advertising revenues. Google propagate the myth that the internet would not be free without advertising, yet it survived pretty well without much advertising before Google came along and many online services are paid, including some of theirs. Their parent company, Alphabet, has data coming in from Android, Gmail, the Google search engine, Google+, YouTube, Chrome, Picasa, Meebo, and hundreds more sources, so it's quite likely they know much about many millions of online users. Experts speculate they have more data on us than the NSA, FBI, MI6 or GCHQ! If you've ever entered your name, address and DOB on a popular website, chances are the Big G, like most collectors, has a record of it somewhere on one of their many servers, and they'll match it with an advertiser or product if we let them. So, like the Alien clinging onto the afterburners of the Nostromo's escape pod, they aren't going to let go lightly. They have the most comprehensive range of data-gathering applications known to man. They also employ 'opt-out' permissions instead of opt-in. This means we're agreeing to be tracked by all manner of technology unless we say no. This is much harder to get out of – we have to complete a box-ticking procedure and repeat it on every machine and browser we use – and means we have to give up private details in the process. Opt-out agreements are outlawed in some countries because they put the consumer at a disadvantage, but the Big G has built its success on the back of them.

What did Google ever do for us?

It's never healthy to have a huge network or market controlled by a handful of players. The theory goes that if the web was broken up into smaller sections, with many different companies and organisations working independently, competition would be healthier; prices and costs would plummet, while safe and secure practices would become the norm, for users would have more choice and vote with their feet (or their mouse clicks). However, with the elites so entrenched, that's unlikely to happen.

Google is like the Roman Empire: they've infiltrated many countries, their people's cultures, their habits, their needs, dreams, markets – even their belief systems – and incorporated them into one enormous shiny package everybody wants. It features fantastic architecture, modern technology, social programs and amenities, forums where folks can gather; even various online coliseums where a thumbs-up (or down) can influence or ruin somebody's life, online or otherwise. It promises security and an enhanced lifestyle for loyal Google citizens and is designed to give us a 'better experience'. Convenience is the key to its success; its systems are quick and simple, visually attractive and easily accessible to everybody. Potentially the Big G can control and influence billions of humans across the planet. It manipulates the flow of nearly all online information worldwide and with this power it can dictate policy to a number of governments. Google has managed to build the greatest empire of all time, which they run virtually tax free.

So how did they do it? Basically, they are the Borg. If they need to get into a new market they will just acquire a company doing well in that market. Search engines? They bought up Searchride, Kaltix, Akwan, Orion, remail, Plinkart, Metaweb, etc. Create an online video sharing website? Buy YouTube, Crusix, Omnisio, Episodic, Director, etc. Get involved with mobile phone technology? Acquire Android, allPAY, Motorola Mobility, Sparrow... well, you get the picture. Google assimilates a company every week, far too many to list here.

Over the years they have been under much scrutiny from safe surfer campaigners and privacy advocates.

Leaking user data like names, email addresses, postcodes, etc, to developers in 2013

Trying to ignore malvertising attacks throughout their ad networks in 2014

Squabbling with the NSA when it secretly wiretapped the connections between Google's data centres in 2015 and 'retrieved' Google data (umm, actually our data)

Trying to prevent their search engine algorithm from suggesting REALLY BAD STUFF in 2016

Receiving a multitude of protests from a battalion of advertisers in 2017 (including AT&T, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, General Motors, Starbucks, UK government, Guardian, Havas Worldwide and Walmart) who objected to ads for their products being placed on extremist terror and race hate YouTube sites, and beside videos encouraging anorexia.

Rise of the machines

That last one has caused a stir. Marketing experts estimate hate preachers have made $318,000 USD (£250,000) from ads for household brands and government departments placed next to their hate stuff, which tries to convert people into holy killers (a misnomer if ever there was one). Google's cut would be $149,000 from this calculation. Google says it's much less but declined to publish any proof.

Traditionally, an ad campaign was negotiated by phone for TV, radio or press by sales teams and ad agencies: EG where the ad went, how long it lasted and how much it cost. Digital media has changed the landscape. Now programme-based computerised ad systems have sprung up, which automatically buy and sell ad campaigns and their slots on behalf of clients. Each website or media owner pimps their advert slots on online exchanges (EG Google's one is called AdX) and advertisers bid for them rather like we bid for products on Ebay. Obviously they'll prefer big audiences for their ads but have no control over where the adverts end up because they're being placed by an algorithm that doesn't think about a website's content, only the size of its user base. If a hate preacher with over 200,000 followers has his videos played 31 million times, the machine will only see the numbers as important. They are all programmed to follow the great God MONEY. This sucks and Google has to fix it.

In the following chapters we'll look at a few Google companies and the main trackers they use to follow us around.