Saturday, October 01, 2005
Google in San Francisco: 'Wireless overlord'? | CNET News.com
Google in San Francisco: 'Wireless overlord'? CNET News.com
The political debate over how to provide broadband access across the country will be affected by Google's gambit:
"Google again is out in front as the most talked about tech company making other tech companies squirm, and I, for one, welcome our new wireless overlords," wrote Ars Technica blogger Jade.
CNet News.com and all the major papers are reporting that Google proposes to provide free Wifi to the City of San Francisco. It is a bold move that promises to be quite controversial. Yes it's a scary idea to Google's competitors, but it also producing some anxiety amongst internet activists who are concerned about Google's willingness to protect the privacy of users logged on to their free network. Google will be tracking user behavior for behaviorial target marketing, which could entail a loss of privacy:
That prospect has some people concerned. "They will know much more information about your activities" than they can glean from a stationary PC, Ira Victor, managing partner for security information firm Data Clone Labs, said in an interview.On the positive side this proposal is a real wake up call for other corporations competing to provide broadband service across the country. If providing free Wifi works as a business model driving 800,000 San Franciscans through Google's portal, we can expect other players in the market to start offering free Wifi to attractive urban centers. It's hard to knock free wireless connectivity for an important urban center. Could this happen across the country?
"There are still a lot of unanswered questions, the most important being related to privacy," wrote blogger Charles Jade on the Ars Technica Web site. "Will Google be watching users? It's unlikely a city like San Francisco with a large contingent of professional protesters and unreconstructed communists would support such a compromise, but we will know shortly."
The political debate over how to provide broadband access across the country will be affected by Google's gambit:
"Google's move to enter the broadband access market could even impact developments in Congress, which is considering various approaches to a Telecom Act rewrite," wrote Mitch Shapiro on the IP & Democracy Web site. "Among the more contentious issues addressed by various draft bills are network neutrality, municipal broadband and privacy, all of which are raised--and with a somewhat novel twist--by Google's Wi-Fi proposal."CNET quotes Dan Gillmor's blog as approving Google's plan but
Citizen journalism advocate Dan Gillmor concluded that the benefits outweigh the risks.
"The word 'free' in this context is problematic. Google expects more than incurring costs from this test bed, and it'll be keeping all kinds of data about what people do on the network. (Yes, there's that Google-versus-privacy question again; it just keeps coming up.)," he wrote in his blog.
"Still, the innovation potential--or at least disruption potential--is enormous. I'm looking forward to seeing what Google does with this, especially in connection with its expanding voice offering. Maybe the incumbent telecom biggies, SBC and Comcast, have something to worry about; wouldn't that be great?" Gillmor wrote.
