Google and the Data of Users
February 21, 2012
Tech Radar interviews former Googler Brian Fitzpatrick in “Google: Why It’s Important You Can Get Hold of Your Data.” Fitzpatrick founded the Data Liberation Front, the Google engineering team which makes it easier for users to move their data into and out of Google products. Why would the company want to make it easier to leave? The write up quotes Fitzpatrick:
“The way we keep you as users is to make it better. Rapid innovation, rapid iteration. So we thought, ‘If we make it even easier for people to leave our products, we’re going to be forced to iterate even more quickly, and make our products better’. Everybody benefits from that, right? Users benefit from it, and we benefit because we’re competing really fairly. I mean, as an engineer, I’d much rather build a better product than build bigger walls around a product.
According to Fitzpatrick, Google head Eric Schmidt was enthused about the idea from the start. It is gradually affecting the way new products evolve because developers are working to keep in mind the mechanisms for data withdrawal.
Not many users have taken advantage of Google Takeout, the page from which users can download all of their Google-stored data. Apparently, though, just knowing it is there makes people more comfortable. Do you find this comment interesting in the shadow of the Safari privacy work around Google inadvertently stumbled into? I do. Say one thing. Do another methinks.
Cynthia Murrell, February 21, 2012
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