A confidential "vison statement" by Google, Inc., recently released and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, highlights what many companies and organizations are facing as they move deeper into the Age of Information – namely, what to do with the vast amounts of data that are stored within their IT systems. The document by Google, Inc., examines ethical considerations like: Should it tap more of what it knows about Gmail users? Should it build a vast "trading platform" for buying and selling Web data? Should it let people pay to not see any ads at all? The article went on to state, "[a]s Google changes, it is likely to bring the rest of the online world with it. With more users than any other Internet company, it has an unparalleled ability to make new ad-targeting methods mainstream. The company also actively participates in trade groups that regularly craft new privacy practices among themselves in hopes of thwarting legislation. The Federal Trade Commission said last year that the field can regulate itself as long as companies disclose their practices to users, among other things."
The FTC, surrogately the U.S. government, are allowing businesses to self-regulate themselves at this time, but as "information" technology continues to emerge and evolve, regulators may be forced to guide the way data is traded and used in commerce. In the very near future (by that I mean by tomorrow), organizations are going to have to seriously "soul search" on how it can balance the way it uses data in commerce versus its ability to make money and drive revenue. Only those organizations who are willing to make a paradigm shift towards addressing data governance in a detailed strategic manner will be an a position to address this situation.