Google’s motto – replete with irony – was ‘don’t be evil’. They dropped that in 2018, although it’s still apparently somewhere in their code of conduct. A headline recently said something rather unsettling, that the company has been collecting everyone’s most personal data for the past 20 years – troves and troves of it – from which the behemoth has profited in the billions by selling it all to the highest bidder. Much of this has been for advertising; but, who knows, there could be more sinister purposes, as thought control becomes a real thing. Witness Britain, descending into a 1984 dystopia (a novel not intended as a training manual, as one bumper sticker said) under the tyrant two-tier Kier. Re-sending a troublesome tweet, or praying silently near an abortion centre, or even upsetting a police officer’s feelings, will now land you hard time in the gaol. Does anyone think Google would hesitate to hand over ‘incriminating’ evidence, for those whom they deem ‘evil’? Which means, anyone not on board with their woke and anti-Christian agenda. Algorithms always have humans behind them, somewhere along the way.
What’s perhaps just as troubling is that the ubiquitous search engine now controls the flow of, and access to, knowledge – almost all of it. They filter what goes into people’s minds, and, hence, what they think and know. Or what they think they know. Here is just one example of a biased search, and there are countless others, which the reader has likely experienced. I myself have switched to Brave – but am not sure how much good that does. There’s at least a feeling of greater security and privacy.
Perhaps best to go back to basics, with home encyclopedias, atlases and good old bound books. Veritas vos liberabit – the truth will indeed set you free.