Google's not evil, but definitely arrogant

COMMENTARY Last month, France's Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes (CNIL) put Google (GOOG) on notice that it was going to investigate how the company shared data across its services.

"Our preliminary analysis shows that Google's new policy does not meet the requirements of the European Directive on data protection," the Commission said. "The CNIL and the EU data protection authorities have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing."

Undeterred, Google's new privacy policy, which is set to go live Friday, will not give users any chance to opt out of having their data merged across all Google services and used to target advertising.

It's a bad moment when corporations decide that they are beyond the law. And, in Europe, it's a bad moment when American corporations take that step. It confirms every European's prejudice that Americans are culturally insensitive, selfish, greedy and don't play well with others.

Of course Google can easily take the position that that doesn't matter: with no meaningful European competition, the company may feel it can afford to turn a blind eye to the environment in which it operates. European governments? Who cares? And anyway, the law is for sissies. Whether or not more subtle discussions are taking place within the corporation about costs and risks, that's how Google's decision plays on the other side of the Atlantic.

This kind of perceived arrogance isn't good for any business. Sure, you can build a business on the back of hating your customers -- several airlines seem manage it -- but the Internet is a big place with lots of choices. Perhaps more important, imagining you are the center of the universe is how Microsoft (MSFT) managed to miss the Internet and mobile phones. It's how, for years, Coke (KO) and Pepsi (PEP) couldn't see the market for bottled water or, more recently, for vitamin drinks. It is also why Google came so late to the social networking party.

Once you believe (and business school professors insist on telling you) that you are the smartest, coolest, most visionary company on earth, you are set to make big, obvious mistakes.

[cbs_bull]

Google may be arrogant. But MicroSoft is definitely evil and arrogant. Plus MicroSoft's products suck comparing to Google and Apple...

[Airplaneguy]

Google is Not - Evil, just a plain simple criminal.

Google bypassed iPhone Security protocols (professionals and the group Anonymous call this HACKING) to steal the address book of individuals so that they could sell the data to their advertising cliental. By installing any Google App - they install the Hack, oops I mean Security By-Pass Enhancement Protocol. (Skype also performs this little pick pocket trick too)

What is a little theft, right? Just a little arrogant? Big Corporations stealing is not evil, just good business. Those suckers in Europe have no idea how good we have being robbed by our good friends at google.

Apple is guilty of not having tougher security code, and not noticing that this theft was going on. It took a university research team to discover this.

[Twenty_Year_Military]

So Google makes a product the whole world uses and loves. A few countries outlaw parts of the product overnight and it's arrogant of Google to keep sending out it's product? I say stop sending your product to said countries and leave them behind.

@parisdakar, what an arse you are to scare some poor kid to make some monolithic statement to a corporation you dislike. You complain when jobs go overseas but then mess with a made in the USA product, Geez!

[parisdakar]

One of Google Earth's cars drove through my neighborhood last week filming the street, houses, etc. I stopped the driver and told him to get the h e ll out of here. I think he was a bit spooked cause he took off. At least I screwed up the filming process a bit. I encourage all of you to do the same.

[bleachigo]

You mean exactly what apple does constantly and you praise them for?
No double standards on CBS.. nope.

And way to completely skew the argument in favor of the french govt, don't even slightly represent googles opinion, or describe how the only thing they are doing wrong (according to France) is offering a great service for free that France cannot compete with or tax. Basically they want google to charge for its services, which is something that already goes against the nature of an open ad-supported web company like Google.

I say google just shut off services to them or only charge $1 in France with a nice little message that explains this and shows their Govt is the reason they have to charge and to sign a pettition or something against it.