unClick Google | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters

unClick Google | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters

On March 11, Google revealed its latest plan to violate your privacy: they will now record the types of websites you visit in order to gather a behavioral profile of your interests purportedly so that they can send you targeted advertising. This policy is in addition to their current policy of keeping a record of every single web search you have ever made along with as much other personally identifying information as they can gather. Of course, these behavioral profiles and detailed search histories will also be made available to law enforcement personnel upon request. The disregard for user privacy is a long standing tradition at Google and one that should be challenged. Just as Facebook was recently forced to cave after protests, Google too can be made to backtrack from their creeping violations of our privacy. Every company has their weak point, for Facebook it is the fear that users will stop using the site, and for Google it is the necessity of increasing their advertising revenue. I propose that we collectively embark on a civil disobedience campaign of intentional, automated “click fraud” in order to undermine Google’s advertising program with the goal of forcing Google to adopt a pro-privacy corporate policy.

I’m not an activist, but I appreciate what they do. The net has done a great job over the past decade of getting people to give up their personal information, just as airmiles and rewards cards do IRL. If you’re not a public individual, and you’re giving out your personal information, and you’re shocked when it is used to deceive you, commit fraud or identity theft, target advertisements, or degrade your life in a myriad of unknown and perhaps unknowable ways, you do have to ask yourself… who do you blame? I don’t blame google. Google’s not hiding what they’re doing. They’re very bouncy and enthusiastic about it… “personal information? you weren’t doing much with it anyway, were you… we can use it!” And why not. If we can’t be bothered to take prophylactic measures…

Tags: CLD419