Friday, April 15, 2005

Google - one step closer to really scary

I'll keep this short because this could be a long topic. Google scares me. Really. I was just starting to get over their really cool (I can almost see President Simone) and creepy (I can almost see President Bush) Satellite feature (click "Satellite" on right side of page) when their latest feature just came out. It seems like they come out with a new way to graft themselves to our lives each week. This time, Google is searching by numbers.

They can search basically any number you could think of. Phone numbers? Yes. UPC codes? Sure. Patent numbers? Uh huh. UPS, USPS, and FedEx tracking numbers? Yep. VIN number? No problem. VIN numbers? VIN NUMBERS?! They're hooked into my damn car now! DAMN! Not scary enough? How about FAA airplane registration numbers and FCC equipment IDS? Cause you can search those now too! I thought we were making a big deal about airplane/airport security. Now we're going to just give information away about planes? Why don't we just give everyone the names and pictures of the upcoming flights' pilots too while we're at it!?! I mean, I'd feel better knowing who my pilot was since I'd also know that anyone could look up anything about the airplane I'm flying in.

It would be nice to know that someone, somewhere is thinking, "Hey maybe we shouldn't make that ramp on the information highway... Maybe we don't want to make that information publicly available to the entire world. Maybe."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

While Google makes finding information much easier, they are typically just searching through information that is already publically available. It may make terrorism more convenient, but I don't know that they are actually giving terrorists any more information that they wouldn't have had already.
-Tom

Anonymous said...

Hey now that is scary... even your address and telephone number is listed so whats the biggy...??? lol.. But you right the internet is not risk free.. just be careful out there all of you.
By the way it was lovely reading your page.. keep it up.

Take care and God Bless!!