Google takes on critics

Spotted on the Tube in London yesterday are a new set of advertisements from Google looking at data security and protection and how this impacts on the family, as well as tips on getter the most out of the internet more broadly.

The ads are pretty low key, deliberately so I'd say, and are run in partnership with the Citizens Advice Bureau to give them added authority. The ads are part of a broader education campaign, details of which can be found here. 

This move from Google is interesting and comes at a time when both Google and Facebook are beginning to face a bit of a backlash from people questioning their motives. To me this is all rather silly; businesses exist to make money isn't it obvious? Some seem to think because the internet is supposedly 'democractic' that internet based firms shouldn't make large profits.

Fundamentally this is a significant step from Google to begin to run the kind of corporate social responsibility campaign that more traditional businesses would normally be behind. A message that Google is very much on the side of the consumer is obvious but not when done through ads on London Underground.

That is no criticism, just an observation that Google is very much a large multi-national company now and consumer education campaigns are a necessary burden for any company of that size and importance.