Google, Privacy International, Matt Cutts, Me Coming Out as a Closet MC Fan

Let me interrupt the pink streak for a moment and focus on something that’s hot on the web the past week. After all, this site’s about SE Marketing too, in case we all forget.

Let me just say that eversince I became involved with Search Engine Optimization, my interest in the art and science of SEO (and the industry to which I belong) has grown, and is continuously burning flames til now. And I also have to add that none of this would have ignited if I wasn’t fortunate enough to be under the mentorship of The Marc Macalua himself, founder of SEO Philippines and a well respected guru and pioneer of the local SEO industry. Lucky me, I started on the right track albeit not knowing it (since I was merely a web copywriter who was trained to use search engine friendly keywords to begin with).

Fast forward to NOW: I’ve been earnestly covering the web and the blogosphere about technology, the Internet, and new media related news especially since three weeks ago when I started contributing for 901am.com. Admittedly, I have taken particular interest in news related to Google, Yahoo and other web search engines, as a matter of fact, my first ever post at 901am was about the launch of Google’s Street View. Which was later followed by an update on the privacy fears and concerns that came out as a result of the Street View launch. And was later followed by this controversial report made by Privacy International ranking Google at the bottom for its privacy protection practices.

I only blog facts at 901am, and was simply not in the game of speaking out my opinion about the news (yet). And just like my previous thoughts here about my voice being too weak to make noise, I usually just keep my opinions to myself and simply nod in front my laptop (to agree or disagree) as I profusely read what them experts have to say about a particular web news, issue, or controversy.

Anyway, I duno if it’s simply Marc’s great influence on me or Matt Cutts really just has that effect on anyone who reads his blog. As my feed reader alerts me of a new Matt Cutts post, and seeing that he has something to say about the widely debated Privacy International report, I feel as if the world suddenly stopped to make way for a piece of his mind.

Matt Cutt obviously did not agree with Privacy International, and his conclusions were simple:

I think Privacy International should feel remorse about walking right past several other companies to single out Google for their lowest rating. But I think that there’s a larger danger here too. I believe this report could corrode earnest efforts to improve privacy at companies around the internet. Why? Because the bottom-line takeaway message that I got from the report is that a company can work hard on privacy issues and still get dragged into the mud. Consider: in the last year or so, other companies gave users’ queries to the government, leaked millions of raw user queries, or even sold user queries and still came off better than Google did.

Now here’s my teeny weeny observation that mostly doesn’t have a point at all I just have to say it: Matt’s post’s permalink reads “privacy-international loses-all-credibility“, which could only mean that his article was initially entitled such but was later changed to “Why I Disagree with Privacy International“. I reckon the first title would resound gazillions of decibels more noise and would inflict more debate and discussions (you can go ahead and start with Mr. Cutt’s own blog post, now growing with more than a hundred comments which I haven’t fully covered yet) — stuff that would probably revolve around which party really loses credibility here: Google, the highly respected and widely used Internet search giant, or Privacy International, the Sweden-based NGO which claims to be the great Internet watchdog?

Privacy International knew who it was up against, it even took the liberty to defend itself even before the web roared in chorus with voices of approval, disapproval, angsts, respect, questioning, whathavewe. To put it bluntly.. as a budding SEO, my mind reeled as I hop from one news site/blog to another, counting (now don’t laugh) all the link love that Privacy International is getting from out of this issue. (Oh wait, I just gave them some link lovin’ too!). Think of all the news and blog posts syndicated all over the web bearing if not links, Privacy International’s very name and credibility. (And what do we always hear about publicity? Good or bad, it’s still publicity). Would they get the same amount of publicity (and back links) if they targetted, say, a low-profile company who sells internet user data?

I think it’s a bit odd, and MC pointed this one out too, that PI picked Google out of hundreds of companies who could be violating privacy rights, and made them rank the lowest of the lows. Then again, I’m an MC fan, and I probably wouldn’t have come out with a post like this if I didn’t read his post. :D

IMO, here’s the image Privacy International is building right now: The underdog. David the Shepherd. The great Internet privacy protection advocate who’s not scared to face Golliath in the name of research and human rights.

Google on the other hand, could either be the bad guy or the victim. They’re mean, they violate privacy rights, they’re the worst when it comes to protecting user data — at least according to Privacy International. OR, they’re simply the “IN” thing, a big bandwagon that companies would want to jump into for their own marketing benefits.

Hence it does help that Google defends its end with equally important facts. Then, it’s up to us to choose which to believe. I just made my choice.

After some time, this whole drama will subside, and at the end of the day, people would still be using Google to search for that hard-to-find car part they need for their Volkswagen Bettle. Or that book they’re trying to find everywhere to no avail. Or that particular restaurant in Times Square so they can book reservations and get directions for Friday night’s business meeting.

Privacy International, meanwhile, ends up with links-full of cached pages for their own benefit. Mission accomplished.