Google knows all, sees all

 In our latest update, Google Maps teams up with Google Calendar to make it even easier to get where you need to go. Starting today, Android users worldwide will start to see their Google Calendar events on Google Maps. So whether you're heading to a family dinner or getting subway directions to a birthday party, you can now quickly and easily access your events directly from the map. (September 30, 2016)

The entry in my GoogleCalendar simply read “6:30am Pick up Heidi”. Nothing in the location field, nothing in the description field. The calendar Heidi shares with me read “Leave for airport 6:30am”.

So I was a little surprised when I started the car and synced  AndroidAuto to find the first choice of location in GoogleMaps was Minneapolis-St Paul Airport. The second choice was the name of the park where I will be meeting a buddy for a hike later today. (My calendar did include this event with the location field filled in.)

I have another hike scheduled for tomorrow morning. I am guessing that park’s name and location will soon be a choice as well.

Now, only seven years after the announcement that Maps and Calendar will be synced (see above), did I realize just how much Google really does know about me. Duh.

I’ve realized for a long time that Amazon and Google and Facebook are experts at target marketing that is based on the searches I do and links I click. As I search for good travel packages for this winter, my Facebook feed is full of ads from travel companies - most I’ve never heard of. I do get a chuckle now and then when some algorithm had apparently had too much to drink and sends me links to feminine hygiene products or the like. Doesn’t happen often, but it makes me glad there are still human pilots in the cockpit of the jets in which I am a passenger.

I use GoogleMaps almost daily when I give my rides to people as a volunteer for a non-profit. Finding their homes, the location of medical clinics, and addresses of needed pharmacies is far easier watching the screen on my car’s dashboard detailing each turn.

I do have passengers (most older even than me!) who are skeptical about the use of GoogleMaps, sometimes insisting that I am taking the “wrong” route. I explain that while my “AI Overlord” does not always show the most direct route to a place, it always provides the fastest route. It knows things like road closures, construction zones, and traffic snarls that we humans alone are unlikely to predict.

For me, this is a pretty good example of the trade-off between privacy and efficiency. Yes, Google knows me and can target market me and can read my calendar to see where I am traveling. It is the world in which we live, making awareness of such dilemmas more important than ever.