Few of us can escape using Google’s services. From Google search to Gmail, the internet company collects an extraordinary amount of data about each and every one of us. This week the company announced that it is going to turn that data into suggestions about how we should live our lives.
Google has just unveiled a feature for its popular calendar called goals. Users list their personal goals including anything from extra time in the gym to finishing that novel on the bedside table. Because Google knows most of our schedules anyway, the feature sends gentle reminders of when we can work on our goals and it can even reschedule our calendars to accommodate work on goals.
The feature is both brilliant and frightening. It could make us more productive. But again we are reminded of the sheer amount of personal information that internet companies have about us. Perhaps we should not be surprised that after telling Google so much about ourselves, Google is now telling us what to do.
