With the past year gone by and a trail of data devastation, we’re still stuck with the companies we have to deal with. What’s Google doing to make it more bearable?
In the Information Age where our intrinsic data and the data we generate is used to power various forms of advertising and revenue and where the feeling of connectivity becomes all too addictive, Google is coming ready to lay down its arms.
At least that’s a little bit of what we’ll come to expect when its I/O 2018 developers’ conference begins tomorrow. The Washington Post reports that the main theme in Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s keynote will be “responsibility.” More tools will be released for parents to control their children’s usage.
While the company will promote its efforts in the typical 2018 tech topics of artificial intelligence, Android P and the Internet of Things, Google may address privacy concerns and the effects of social media on user attitudes — Facebook admitted with internal and academic research that passive viewing of its news feed negatively impacts users’ moods.
Apple has been more proactive on protecting the privacy of its users by defending device encryption, though it has been stepping up its bids in data-heavy services. Google, with its search engine and media properties like YouTube, has been more mum about privacy and has been made to comply with European law decisions against it involving anti-competitive practices, the “right to forget” and the General Data Protection Regulations.
What Pichai will say in response to the world picture at this point may pale to the action (or inaction) the company he leads will take.
