cell phone

We’re not sure that any private company — or for that matter, any government agency — should be allowed this level of omniscience (and intrusion). As it is, intelligence agencies reportedly have learned how to track what we view on the web — every keystroke — and can also trace our movements (through cell phones, if our cell phones are on). In some cases, there is the technology for government agents to even listen into conversations by cracking into the phones — conversations that are not on the phone but somewhere within range of its microphone! The whereabouts of criminals have been traced via smartphones. Last week, news came of “SmartMeters” that are being installed in Canada, California, and several other U.S. states on meters such that our utilities can be controlled via a two-way radio-frequency grid, allowing Big Brother to regulate and even shut down usage of gas and water. Ultimately they plan to charge higher rates for older refrigerators, washers, and the like, requiring the purchase of chip-embedded appliances, the installation of new outlets, and thermostats, all traceable. As it happens, those who were so worried about microchips had no idea just how widespread those chips would be (perhaps one day indeed to find their way under our skin).

But let’s stay on Google: it is uncanny to hear some of the executives from this company with annual revenues approaching $30 billion say — as one did recently (in  announcing a quicker, more “intuitive” search technology) — that “Google wants to be half of your brain.” It was said in partial jest but is less humorous as news arrives that the company “harvested” personal information — even passwords and e-mail — from wireless routers as its vehicles roamed European streets taking those panoramic street photos. Last December, Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, declared, concerning, privacy concerns: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities.” Privacy International ranked Google as “Hostile to Privacy,” the only company on the list to receive that low a rating.

Meanwhile — and let this sink in — Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world, and processes over one billion search requests a day. Google has a “cookie” that places a unique identification number on your hard disk anytime you land on a Google page, if you don’t already have one. On September 6, 2008, it developed a partnership with GeoEye to launch a satellite providing Google with high-resolution imagery for Google Earth. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. 

Vandenberg? Big brother? Is Big Brother moving quicker than we thought and looking somewhere on the horizon for that New World Order? Will it come in a way we did not expect — such as from corporations? Google’s motto long has been, “Don’t be evil.” We hope it adheres to that. Unfortunately, it has shown unnerving indications of hostility to Christian beliefs, booting out websites that are not in sympathy, for example, to gay rights. We’re not talking about the anti-christ. We remember when everyone was pointing to Bill Gates. Google provides some invaluable services. But it doesn’t hurt to be vigilant. In our memory are the words from a seer in Ecuador who claimed to have been given a vision of the anti-christ and described him (this was in the early 1990s) as very young at the time, and a man who would appear very humble but actually would be extremely arrogant and would gain control through a combination of science and media.

Back then it seemed befuddling (science and television and music and other media?), but thinking back, it’s the way the internet technologies might be described.