In one day I’ve been sent or have seen on blogs I read, two separate videos about privacy and Google. One multi-part video from Big Honkin and another video from the Onion. The first is from the comedy film makers Big Honkin about what if Google moved in as a roommate? In three parts. The other is a “news” (satire) report from the Onion about what happens to the people that want to Opt-Out of Google.

These are funny, but as with all satire, there’s a little bit of truth. I use Gmail, Gcalendar, Gvoice, Gdocs, Goog411, there’s more but decided this list was long enough and now the Gphone. Of course all of my websites are in Google. Hopefully Google won’t turn out to be too evil and if they are I’m old enough I won’t have to put up with it for too long.

The information is out there already, it’s only a matter of who sees it and what they do with it. If it’s only a matter of selling you crap, that’s fine and no one really cares. But when it comes to health information and employers using information they find out on the web as a reason to not hire you whether it’s true or not, that’s when things become a problem and things like that are happening now, more and more.

You want to make sure the information about you that is online is factual and someone looking for you knows it’s you or not. If you have an uncommon name, it’s not that difficult to control. If you’re John Smith, you have to be unique in some other way. John Smith the Jazz Musician or John Smith the Plumber where someone looking for a musician name John Smith will be able to find you. You want your site to be found for friends, family, job contacts and other networking, but you still need to control your privacy like your address and phone number. It’s tough to control because everyone wants to know everything.

The Big Honkin Three Parts What if Google was Your Roommate.
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Here’s the report from the Onion: