Destroying Google

What’s worse than a company that only wants money? One that already has too much. Google is that company. They’ve got the kind of wealth that makes governments nervous, they’ve convinced people to organize their entire existence around a search algorithm, and they understand that information is power—the kind of power they’re perfectly positioned to exploit. They’re collecting today and they’ll control tomorrow.

They know where I am. They know what I want, what I’m afraid of, what interests me. They want to be on every phone, every device, present in every moment my thoughts are turning something over. The brightest people alive are locked in buildings trying to figure out how to reach deeper into my head. Google is everywhere and the system is too big to fight directly.

I’ve thought about corrupting it from inside. Sign up with fake names, upload other people’s pictures, speak gibberish, feed the algorithm nothing but contradictions. Create enough noise that the machine chokes on its own data. It probably doesn’t work. The system’s too efficient, too vast, too hungry. But there’s something in the refusal itself, in the deliberate sabotage of useful information. Maybe that’s worth something.

Their slogan used to be Don’t be evil. That’s meaningless now. The only thing left is to lie to them constantly. Lie until the system eats itself. I don’t think it changes anything. But I think the attempt has to count for something.