Google is your best friend. That is the answer one usually gets when one asks the search engine for some piece of information. This answer can be read as an index of a very influential media ideology: that Google is a benevolent, neutral instrument providing users with the truth. Reality is a bit more complicated. In this file, we zoom in on the politics of Google.
While cultural heritage professionals are debating ethical issues and the future of museums, arts and culture, the Google Arts & Culture project is displaying human remains and stolen objects online. This article explores how Google's reach and technical affordances might impact efforts to transform the fields of cultural heritage and museology.
Google Maps displays a commercially oriented representation of the world. This influences how map users perform in the represented space. However, this subjective representation is obscured by the app's widespread use and its features' framing.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff deserves a productive public and academic debate. It should not only be read and discussed by a broad audience. Scholars across disciplines must engage with it.
In this article, the issue of political bias is analyzed in relation to the algorithms behind the Google search engine.
Smart Cities are not only about optimizing people's lives, but also lead to new forms of surveillance and directing people towards normative behavior. Big brother is watching you.
Google Translate is a contributor to and a consequence of globalization. How can that be seen in the way Google Translate functions and in tourism?
Due to globalization, families are likely to speak multiple languages within one household. That is why Google made its voice assistant bilingual. Is this a breakthrough in the super-diverse world or just another cause of inequality?
Five years after the Snowden revelations, we're still more concerned with technological solutionism and individualistic models of privacy than addressing privacy as a common good.
The services that are provided by data-giant Google are becoming more and more a normal part of daily life. But are we truly aware of the implications this has on our privacy? How much information does Google actually have on you?
Information provided by web resources has become indispensable to immigration officers assessing asylum claims. How does the internet affect the lives of those who seek asylum by making their identity proofs unconvincing?
