February 23, 2011
Google creates an art contest for kids so that it can get their Social Security Numbers.
“It worked perfectly, too,” Kyle Sayton, a spokesman for Google said. “We didn’t even need all nine digits because we asked for the child’s city of birth—not the child’s current city—plus the last four digits of the Social Security. If you know the city of birth, plus the last four digits of the number, a statistical guess can be made and voila! Targeted advertising revenue.”
By obtaining a Social Security Number, countless troves of personal information about an individual can be opened and utilized for a variety of marketing purposes.
“Thereby helping the American economy grow,” said Sayton enthusiastically.
A number of parents, however—all of them educated abroad—began wondering if it was legal to use deceit and trickery to gather personal information about their children, even in America, and contacted the Federal Trade Commission. Twenty-four hours later, the Social Security Number requirement on the contest entry form was gone.
“That was a close one,” Sayton said. “Good thing we’re an enormous corporation or there might have been repercussions.”
“Doodle-4-Google” had 33,000 entries last year and “celebrates the creativity” of young people.
More info @ New York Magazine or the Huffington Post
Can’t wait to see Google 20 years from now.
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