Google's near ubiquity in the Internet world is under fire from a top European media executive who wrote an open letter accusing both Google and Facebook of bringing the world closer to a surveillance state.
In the missive addressed to Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of newspaper publisher Axel Springer noted that his company has had a good marketing relationship with Google but lamented being backed into a corner, BBC News reported.
Axel Springer was essentially forced to work with the Mountain View, Calif-headquartered tech giant because "we know no search engine alternative to increase our online reach," Mathias Dopfner wrote in the letter, as quoted by BBC News.
The European media company publishes some 200 newspapers and magazines, has a strong online presence and works in television and radio.
Google is close to becoming a monopoly, and its business model is operated in a way that "in less reputable circles would be called a protection racket," Dopfner wrote, as quoted by The Guardian.
Publishing the open letter in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Dopfner pointed out the underestimated power of rapidly burgeoning tech companies like Google and Facebook.
"With the exception of biological viruses, there is nothing with such speed, efficiency and aggressiveness that spreads like these technology platforms, and this also lends its creators, owners and users with new power," Dopfner wrote.
The media executive detailed his concerns about Google's reach and how it affects privacy.
"No one knows as much about its customers as Google. Even private and business emails are read by Gmail and analyzed if the need exists," Dopfner wrote.
Facebook was also taken to task when Dopfner remembered being at a conference where the social network's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was asked about user privacy when it comes to collected data.
"And Zuckerberg said: 'I do not understand your question. Those who have nothing to hide, have nothing to fear,'" Dopfner wrote.
"Again and again I had to think about this sentence. It's terrible. I know it is certainly not meant that way. This is a mindset that was fostered in totalitarian regimes not in liberal societies. Such a sentence could also be said by the head of the Stasi or other intelligence service or a dictatorship."
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