Google Introduces Flu Trends; Gets Red-Font Treatment on Drudge
Matt Drudge, while tacitly supportive the Bush administration’s support of surveillance techniques that could be described as somewhat Orwellian, is always paranoid about Big Brother spying on the sovereign individual. Google tends to catch his eye, and one of his first non-election “red font” stories in awhile involves Google’s new service, Google Flu Trends.
Here is what Google is doing: they are aggregating reports of influenza across the country by using information gathered from search queries and identifying places where the flu is catching on. They then cross-reference this information with trends from past years, and make it available to the public without naming names.
The quotes Drudge is reporting:
Engineers will capture keywords and phrases related to the flu, including thermometer, flu symptoms, muscle aches, chest congestion and others.
Dr. Lyn Finelli, chief of influenza surveillance at CDC: “One thing we found last year when we validated this model is it tended to predict surveillance data. The data are really, really timely. They were able to tell us on a day-to-day basis the relative direction of flu activity for a given area. They were about a week ahead of us. They could be used… as early warning signal for flu activity.”
Thomas Malone, professor at M.I.T.: “I think we are just scratching the surface of what’s possible with collective intelligence.”
Eric Schmidt, GOOGLE’s chief executive vows: “From a technological perspective, it is the beginning.”
Google is never going to get the raw data the the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) can garner, but they can catch trends over the Internet to predict with a good degree of accuracy how the flu is progressing through various models, and provide both individuals and professionals with valuable information. This isn’t particularly complicated: Google has noted search queries that are particularly common in locations where the flu is spreading, and can thus predict with some certainty where the flu is occurring.
It is understandable that health information is sensitive and any violation of that privacy is shameful and disturbing, and Google needs to be held to a very high standard when it comes our personal information. The idea that the government could ask Google to identify persons using certain search queries is frightening.
But should this fear dictate whether or not Google explores technology that can do a great service to us? Google knows that the minute they violate the public trust is the same minute Yahoo and Microsoft begin to destroy them. This brings to mind the legendary Tylenol recall of 1982, when there was some tainted Tylenol on the market. In reaction to cyanide-laced Tylenol deaths in Chicago, Johnson & Johnson recalled every bottle of Tylenol on the market, offered a free replacement, introduced new tamper-free packaging, and a big media campaign. The rest is history.
The betrayal of trust could have killed Tylenol forever, but they recognized just how important it was and have reaped the rewards for years. I trust Google knows this lesson.
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