During its early days tiny, idealistic Google rallied its troops with the now famous “Do No Evil” mantra.  Today this “us against the world” mentality seems out of place for a $170 billion company.

Google touches us in so many ways.  There’s Google Earth, Google Maps, internet search, Android…the list goes on and on.  Their strategy is obvious – imbed themselves in our lives to learn what they can so they can charge advertisers for customized marketing pitches.

The downside of such a strategy is the more personal Google becomes the more they risk upsetting us.  Consider a commodity product like toothpaste.  Don’t like the flavor?…buy another brand.  Problem solved.  With Google, however, being so interwoven in our personal lives can feel like an emotional betrayal if their practices and policies don’t mesh with our thoughts, feelings and opinions.

More and more we see Google bump up against this problem.  Recently we learned that Android spies on its users.  It collects location-based data every few seconds and transmits it to Google several times an hour.  Along with location it records and reports a user’s name and the phone’s unique identifier.

With privacy advocates up in arms who is next to upset?  How about the animal welfare movement?  The latest game to appear on theAndroid Market is called “Dog Wars” developed by Kage Games.  The goal?…feed, water and train virtual dogs for dog fighting.

Some issues go away quietly.  Some take on a life of their own.  For the latter it’s important to effectively manage crisis (such as J&J did during the 1980s Tylenol scare).  As Google grows and imbeds themselves deeper into our personal lives it will be interesting to see just how their practices mesh with our individual standards of “evil.”