Two films premiered this week in Utah that take a critical look at an emerging villain of our time: Google and its insatiable hunger for our data.

“Google and the World Brain,” judging by the trailer, is a documentary with thriller music that depicts the vast and sinister ambitions of Google’s book-scanning efforts.

As one professor/librarian/expert dude puts it in the trailer, “The Google book-scanning project is clearly the most ambitious, swell-brained scheme that has ever been invented.”

Here’s the Hollywood Reporter’s review from Sundance.

Meanwhile, a film about the perils of online data collection called “Terms and Conditions May Apply” premiered at Slamdance, an independent film festival also in Park City this week.

As Casey Newton’s CNET piece puts it, “The film provides special scrutiny of Google, and argues that the company bowed to advertiser pressure by removing language from its privacy policy promising users anonymity unless they willingly gave it up.”

TACMA Preview from Hyrax Films Private on Vimeo.

At a surface glance, at least, the films have a lot in common: They take a possibly valid, but very negative slant on interesting issues; Google didn’t agree to participate in either; and they both feature shots of the company’s employees milling about its central courtyard in Mountain View.

I’ll leave you with the words of international privacy expert Moby (the same guy who wants to take you to the south side), via the TACMA trailer:

“Anything that’s been digitized is not private, and that is terrifying.”

Categorised as: Chief Digital Officer | Digital Media | Feedster

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