Google, in its ten or so years of life, has expanded in ways no one could have predicted. Once a simple search engine, Google is now one of the leading controllers of the world’s personal and public information. Most email is run through Google. Most search queries are done through Google. Most mobile data is used by Google. Google Chrome is the browser of choice for most average users. All this was done with the help of the people, as they trusted Google more and more with their contacts, pictures, emails, school information, browser histories and more.

In an age where people sign contracts that they don’t read on a daily basis, companies that control most of our information should at the very least unnerve the average consumer. However, people see this amalgamation of informational media and tailored experiences, the Googlization, as a positive thing. Even if they see it as a frightening and horrifying concept, one that will shape our future in the worst of ways, they still hang on the next update for their Galaxy S6, like myself. When I think of Google, the first thing that comes to mind is how all powerful it is, how much control they have over our lives. Soon after that thought however, I reach into my pocket, remove my android phone, and give Google some more sensitive personal information. It seems the more worried I become about Google’s role in the all-too-scary future, the more helpful and expedient they become. Activists today rally around important concepts like continuing civil rights, fighting for those in less fortunate situations, and making government into its most helpful form. While this takes place, though, a silent war is won without competition. Google is the web that allows these fights to continue. The social networks that make up these civil liberty activities are the hand that feeds, and few question what that hand has in mind for the people.  Even the most vengeful of those that perpetrate crimes on the people today dismiss the threat of Google and Big Data as a whole on our livelihoods.

Google has everything to gain from this. They coerce us into buying from them, they direct us to sites they want us to see, they have us sign agreements promising them our personal information to be distributed to their choice of third parties. All the while, they retain their public image as the helpful, do-good company with dreamy offices and limitless storage. But it comes with a price: Google is gaining our trust. What will it do with all that immense information, while those who gave up that information did it willingly and voluntarily? How far will Google go with our information and unconditional trust? What atrocities could Google commit and have its public image be left unscathed? These are questions that I imagine we will have answers to within a decade. Google is changing at an exponential rate. What service will Google offer next? How easy can they make our lives before people decide that the trade-off is too much? The ultimate question that decides the outcome of all the others is this: how much are we willing to give Google?