Will Google live up to its motto?
Few companies have made a bigger impact on the world than Google, the omnipresent technology company launched by two whiz kids in a Stanford University dorm room 10 years ago.
Started as simply a better way to search online, it’s become far more than that: Google is now a verb; one of the world’s most valuable businesses (about $140 billion in market valuation); the future of advertising; and possibly the major reason why all of us feel like we’re living in an attention-deficit disordered world. Unquestionably a wonderful success story, the 10-year anniversary of Google also brings up unsettling questions about the company - and its impact on us.
Will it be able to live up to its motto, "Don’t be evil"?
Google is amassing the world’s biggest trove of sensitive user data. When governments like China and even the United States come calling, can we trust it to hold out? Can we trust it to understand that there is a fine line between "monetizing" user information and blatant invasions of privacy, and does the company understand where that line lies?
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