Today we were treated to Google’s first Superbowl ad.
It showed the life story of a man, all through his Google searches. He traveled to Paris (“study abroad Paris”), met a woman at a restaurant (“cafes near the Louvre”), fell in love (“how to impress French girls”), seduced her (“chocolate shop near Paris France”), moved to France (flight tracking), got married (“churches in Paris”), and eventually had a child (“how to assemble a crib”).
What’s creepy about this? It’s proof that your Google searches can be enough to reconstruct your life history. All of it. And this was just the highlights. Imagine if our mystery searcher had searched for more personal information — how to deal with grief, the loss of a child, sexual confusion, a disease, a long-lost love, or more? Google knows all of it. Google knows how you feel, what you think, and what you do.
And even if Google itself doesn’t read your search history, it’s still out there and vulnerable to eavesdropping or hacking (remember Google’s allegations that someone in China hacked their servers and stole personal data?)
I think Google meant the ad to show that it is powerful.
Instead, it gave me the heebie-jeebies. It’s an everyday reminder that Google knows pretty much everything there is to know about you. And that this data is stored on servers around the world, where it could be mis-used by nearly anyone. (TechCrunch says that it’s proof that hell froze over.)
Remind me to clear my search history more often.
6 comments ↓
I just went through my last two months of Google Web History, and I can tell you, it doesn’t reveals anything that anyone that know me doesn’t know. Web searches are just not as interesting as the ones in the ad.
Most of them in my case are software development-related stuff. Before being so afraid of “the power that google has” just check you history: it’s less frightening than what commercial made you believe.
“I think Google meant the ad to show that it is powerful.”
I don’t think the commercial’s primary intent was to display the “power” of Google, but rather the day to day usefulness of their engine.
Interestingly enough, the overwhelming initial response to this ad campaign has been positive from girls in their mid-20s (I saw a copious amount of “awws” in my twitter feed), and “mehs” from their male geek counterparts (who already probably use Google anyways.
We weren’t exactly the target demographic of this ad. Home run, Google- you slammed this one out of the park.
I saw the special on CNBC about Google & know about how some people consider them to be too involved with our lives & able to predict things, etc. But that’s one of the downfalls of very smart technology.
No big deal to me. It’s not like it’s going to come back & haunt me. I think this advertisement was Google’s big ‘FUCK YOU’ to Bing. Thank God. I loathe Bing.
I’m 22, 23 in May & I totally didn’t say ‘Meh.’ I’m a straight male with a girlfriend & kind of thought ‘Aww’ to be perfectly honesty with you.
But either way. Great commercial. I’ve been a Google user for…well, forever, so I totally appreciate this.
I think you are right. Google knows so much. I look through my girlfriend’s search history, and I am amazed at how much a person’s search record really does reflect their core values and personality.
When I meet someone, I Google them almost immediately. Out at a bar, I’ve even Googled people from the toilet after meeting them a few moments prior.
I keep Google Alerts for myself, so I know when my name comes up on the Internet. More people need to know that they are being watched, constantly, online.
[...] For another opinion on Google’s Super Bowl ad, check out Reputation.com Chief Privacy Officer Dave Thompson’s analysis. [...]
Leave a Comment