Correction

Hey Matthew: the issue of Google knowing enough about you to target detailed advertising was a topic that we looked at in "Law and the Internet Society." I think it is much easier to see the dangers of this information existing in a context of easily obtainable subpoenas and the like, but I agree, the commercial point (that Google's intimate knowledge of your life is a negative force) strikes many people as absurd. I personally do see Google's possession of this information as problematic; however, (in my opinion) we never developed an argument capable of swaying those who did not already intuitively see the situation as dangerous.

Although I still don't have the perfect argument, I think I see to some degree where the weakness/points of contention lie in the arguments that are usually made against information/identity collection by google and its kin.

1) The argument is often going to be primarily moral. Although you could make an non-moral argument, I don't think it would be convincing to someone who entered the discussion with a strong belief in capitalist economics (as discussed later). Because the argument is likely going to revolve around considerations of human dignity and the like, I think is almost necessarily going to be intuitive to a certain degree.

2) People will take issue with the effectiveness of the information in driving demand and causing sales. Part of the argument that people usually make against Google ads assumes that they are, or have the potential to be, extremely effective. This argument depends on a contention that, even if the ads are not effective right now, some future iteration of advertising will be: the information in Google's hands will be saved forever, and waits only for an advance in behavioral psychology to become an unstoppable instrument of economic demand generation. As far as I can see, the argument against information collection will always rest on this assertion to some degree, and although it does not seem to me like an overly controversial assumption, it is difficult to actually prove to a skeptic.

3) Similar to #1, a consequentialist argument is probably not going to work out, so long as we are basing the discussion within the framework of capitalist economic doctrine. As you said in your essay, it doesn't seem (at least superficially) that Google being able to drive demand with targeted messages is a negative thing. Even if we assume #2 to be true (that Google can learn enough about you to present ads in such a context and with such timing as to be basically irresistible), it is not clear why this is a bad thing. If Google leveraged this hypothetical irresistible ad technology, at its worst it would create a marketplace where demand was ratcheted up to the maximum. While one could argue that this could possibly cause negative economic effects (for example people over-leveraging themselves to purchase advertised goods), many people approaching from a free-market perspective are going to fail to see anything wrong with this state of affairs - the argument will turn into a debate over hypothetical effects and economic doctrine: the argument against information collection will be tied to the old, familiar, and generally unwinnable conflict between different economic ideologies.

4) Peoples' belief in personal autonomy generally prevents them from seeing the group autonomy problem as affecting themselves. Even if we imagine a google capable of turning the great host of people into predictable and behaviorally transparent purchasing machines, this does not strike home as a moral issue for many people. If one believes that this state of affairs (ramped up demand creation) is not economically problematic, it is typically difficult to see it as morally or otherwise problematic. Although I imagine that most people would have a problem seeing themselves as autonomy-less purchasing machines driven by Google's deep and intimate knowledge of their psychology, people generally refuse to think such a thing is possible for them personally. Even if one is able to see a lack of autonomy in others, it is difficult (maybe impossible) to truly believe that you are capable of being played in the same manner as those around you. People will often accept, from a behavioral perspective, that it is possible to know others "better than they know themselves." People believe in the efficacy of advertising and the possibility of a weakened autonomy in others, but every individual will insist that they are the exception. The difficulty of seeing yourself as a behavioral machine, and the assumption that you are making choices to some degree independent of context, makes it very hard to present the information/identity gathering of google as a personal threat.

Wow. Too much writing - I should have made that my paper! These are the problems I have come across when trying to make the argument you address in your paper, and why I think it is such a hard argument to make to someone who does not have an intuitive belief in the problematic nature of information collection on the internet. The constitutional and criminal problems raised by Justin and Andre should not be understated; however, the pure economic autonomy argument is often very unconvincing to someone skeptical to the basic assumptions of the claim.

-- TheodoreSmith - 18 May 2009