[431] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Google's "Failure to Communicate" vs. User Support
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Fri Feb 27 19:07:26 2009
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:43:45 -0800
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Google's "Failure to Communicate" vs. User Support
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000509.html
Greetings. There's been a lot of buzz around the Net recently about
Google Gmail outages, and this has brought back to the surface a
longstanding concern about the public's ability (or lack thereof) to
communicate effectively with Google itself about problems and issues
with Google services.
I'll note right here that Google usually does provide a high level of
customer support for users of their paid services. And I would assert
that there's nothing wrong with Google providing differing support
levels to paying customers vs. users of their many free services.
But without a doubt, far and away, the biggest Google-related issue
that people bring to me is a perceived inability to effectively
communicate with Google when they have problems with free Google
services -- which people do now depend on in many ways, of course.
These problems can range from minor to quite serious, sometimes with
significant ongoing impacts, and the usual complaint is that they get
no response from submissions to reporting forms or e-mailed concerns.
On numerous occasions, when people bring particular Google problems to
my attention, I have passed along (when I deemed it appropriate) some
of these specific problems to my own contacts at Google, and they've
always been dealt with promptly from that point forward. But this
procedure can't help everyone with such Google-related issues, of
course.
I have long advocated (both privately to Google and publicly) that
Google establish some sort of public Ombudsman (likely a relatively
small team) devoted specifically to help interface with the public
regarding user problems -- a role that requires a skillful combination
of technical ability, public relations, and "triage" skills. Most
large firms that interact continually with the public have teams of
this sort in one form or another, often under the label "Ombudsman"
(or sometimes "Office of the President").
The unofficial response I've gotten from Google regarding this concept
has been an expression of understanding but a definite concern about
how such an effort would scale given Google's user base.
I would never claim that doing this properly is a trivial task -- far
from it. But given both the horizontal and vertical scope of Google
services, and the extent to which vast numbers of persons now depend
on these services in their everyday personal and business lives, I
would again urge Google to consider moving forward along these lines.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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