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Google will use its ‘cloud’ to harvest all the data out there and wants to move into every field of human endeavor. A recent article in BusinessWeek discussed this idea:

As this concept spreads, it promises to expand Google’s footprint in industry far beyond search, media, and advertising, leading the giant into scientific research and perhaps into new businesses. In the process Google could become, in a sense, the world’s primary computer.

Scientific research and new businesses - perhaps? This is a certainty, not mere speculation. It is bound to happen:

Schmidt won’t say how much of its own capacity Google will offer to outsiders, or under what conditions or at what prices. “Typically, we like to start with free,” he says, adding that power users “should probably bear some of the costs.” And how big will these clouds grow? “There’s no limit,” Schmidt says. As this strategy unfolds, more people are starting to see that Google is poised to become a dominant force in the next stage of computing. “Google aspires to be a large portion of the cloud, or a cloud that you would interact with every day,” the CEO says.

Let me repeat that one more time: “or a cloud that you would interact with every day”. Schmidt can throw out that “or”. You already are interacting with Google every day, in one way or another.

The freedom to choose someone to watch over you

Your personal data is already being harvested on a daily basis. The only choice you have is to which one of the Web’s juggernauts you will submit to:

As the sea of business and scientific data rises, computing power turns into a strategic resource, a form of capital. “In a sense,” says Yahoo Research Chief Prabhakar Raghavan, “there are only five computers on earth.” He lists Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon. Few others, he says, can turn electricity into computing power with comparable efficiency.

All sorts of business models are sure to evolve. Google and its rivals could team up with customers, perhaps exchanging computing power for access to their data.

Perhaps? Yeah, right.

The irresistible call of the cool

As soon as a new thing becomes popular (like Facebook for example), people flock to it like mindless sheep without thinking that it will be exploited to mine data an intrude on their privacy.

And once it becomes popular, this new thing is irresistible to business owners. Countless bloggers and Web gurus have advised people to use social networks like Digg, Delicious and YouTube to promote their blogs and websites to get more traffic and monetize it and/or promote their product.

It’s an avalanche: most of people are involved in some kind of a social network and some are subscribed to many of them, while there are those that use all of them.

Your dark secret will become just another piece of marketing data

Stalking someone? This data will be in turn used to make a custom offer that will suit your needs. Even if it’s considered unethical, because big companies will offer you disgusting stuff, if it brings them revenue.  What’s important is that they got you covered. Money rules supreme, remember!

People will be attracted to free and open-source products like flies to shit

In the same BusinessWeek article, there is a revealing passage:

IBM had been a leading promoter of open-source software, including Linux. This was a key in Big Blue’s software battles, especially against Microsoft. If Google and IBM teamed up on a cloud venture, they could construct the future of this type of computing on Google-based standards, including Hadoop.

You may have a computer at home or at work. You may have free access to it at your school or university. Technology becomes more and more affordable each year. Open-source software embraced by the likes of Google and IBM will make the Web even more accessible and affordable. You can already connect to the Net for free by just installing a new tryout CD, for example (I know a man who used the AOL’s free tryout dial-up promo cds to connect to the Web for 2 years. He never paid anyone a single dime to connect to the Internet).

This will in turn lead to more and more people being connected. And sharing their personal data online, which will in turn be harvested by the likes of Google and Yahoo. It will be more and more difficult to maintain your privacy and keep away from the Web.

Big Web companies are bound to become major players of strategic importance

Companies like Google will almost never answer before a court. Not in a way that would seriously damage them, anyway. Sounds too bold an assertion? I am almost certain of this, because big Web companies are bound to become like the oil giants and the military-industrial giants of today, like ExxonMobil or Raytheon, for example. And here’s why:

1. Revenue. Google earned US$ 10 billion in 2006, which amount to half of Raytheon’s earning in that same year. And Raytheon is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world!
2. Influence. With that much cash, these companies become important players in many markets, and consequently, influence the business decisions of thousands and thousands of small companies and individuals alike. And that influence inevitably spills into politics sooner or later.
3. Strategic importance. The projects being worked upon in these companies are among the best kept secrets in the world. You can’t afford to make this kind of data fall into the wrong hands, be it a grave thing like nuclear weapons lab data or an infinite database containing every possible bit of information on every citizen in any country.

Having the right data all the data and being able to access it is a crucial strategic asset for any major player in today’s unstable world, a thing that the current US administration knew well, even before they came to power:

If outer space represents an emerging medium of warfare, then “cyberspace,” and in particular the Internet hold similar promise and threat. And as with space, access to and use of cyberspace and the Internet are emerging elements in global commerce, politics and power. Any nation wishing to assert itself globally must take account of this other new “global commons.” The Internet is also playing an increasingly important role in warfare and human political conflict. From the early use of the Internet by Zapatista insurgents in Mexico to the war in Kosovo, communication by computer has added a new dimension to warfare. Moreover, the use of the Internet to spread computer viruses reveals how easy it can be to disrupt the normal functioning of commercial and even military computer networks. Any nation which cannot assure the free and secure access of its citizens to these systems will sacrifice an element of its sovereignty and its power.

That’s why the big Web companies will become important to governments, like the big oil, banks and telecoms already are.

And as we speak, as we breathe, a copy of a portion of our lives is being recorded by a Microsoft, by a Google, by a Yahoo. In just a short span of time, our lives may well resemble the image painted by some disturbing and dire dystopian visions.

You know what? I just can’t wait for the New Year’s Eve party to get seriously drunk.

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