The Google 20% project concept has almost become legendary. It’s where Google employees get to spend 20% of their time working on their own projects. Maybe if the project is really significant it will become featured at labs.google.com or perhaps the grand goal: a staple Google product someday.

The newest 20% project entry involves a secure tunnel for WiFi users via Windows software download and through wifi.google.com. The Inside Google blog takes a hard look at the Google Secure Access client privacy policy and compares this move to the Google Web Accelerator. The author floats the notion that this could be a really good way for Google to analyze user’s browsing activity and patterns.

Lots of other people are piling on, according to tech.memorandum.com this morning it’s the top story. People like Om Malik, Threadwatch, Search Engine Journal, etc. Hmm, mostly fear, uncertainity and doubt (FUD) in Google’s intentions with an employee’s 20% project?

As I said the last time this whole privacy surfing thing came up: I don’t care if Google offers me a free tool and analyzes my surfing. In fact, if they can make my surfing more efficient and save me time, I’m all for it! I stopped using their Accelerator because of performance issues, not because I was scared Big Brother Google was watching. If my only choices were between naked WiFi and Google Secure Access, I’d opt for Google, but fortunately as others have already noted, those aren’t our only choices.

Somebody please let me know when all this privacy stuff from Google is a real concern. This 20% project, though interesting for about two minutes, will likely not go as far as … well, let’s say San Francisco.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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