Google is a company that it's hard not to admire. In the last decade it's swept aside all rivals, becoming so powerful on the internet that it's almost synonymous with it.
And yet, for a company that prides itself on its 'don't be evil' slogan it has found itself under increasing amounts of scrutiny for the way it operates.
Why? Because this is a company that wants to know every single detail about you, from the contents of your email to your exact location at any given moment.
Information is power
Sharing that content can be massively useful – allowing each and every one of us to find the most relevant information. Be it an internet query or a frantic search for an after-work pub on a Friday night, a local movie screenings or what your friend got up to at the weekend.
But sharing that information is also incredibly valuable to the company that holds it – and at the moment it is Google that is collecting the world's data and storing it away in its massive banks of hard drives. Information is power and, as every superhero fan will tell you, with great power comes great responsibility.
So when Google finds itself under fire for choosing your followers for you on its newly launched Buzz, or because its CEO suggests that if you don't want to share your web habits it's probably because you are doing something you shouldn't, you can't really blame people for asking 'who decides what's evil?'.
It comes down to trust. Do you trust Google with your information and do you trust it to use it in the right way? Is Google a benign facilitator or a potential dictator? We'd love to know what you think.
