The Rewards That Motivate- Google Incentives

Source: bit.ly/1lUeTwD

What are the key perks of being an innovative firm? If this question is being asked, the most credible answer would be high employee engagement, simple recruitment & retention would lead a company towards innovations. An appropriate innovative company would involve motivated and active personnel engagement in the all stages of their success just like Google, showcasing the most perfect example of employee engagement. 

One can not imagine today's modern life without internet. From education to business, every aspect of living is deeply influenced by the multi-faceted impacts of internet & if internet culminates into something that is called Google. Google & internet are inextricable parts of each other. However the question arises, what makes Google so important & conversant? It’s the distinct strategy to reward all of its employees that has led the company to accomplishments, having its own search engine, browser, the cell phone and tablet operating system, and the list goes on. 

The Googlement Of Employees

 

Today Google stuff is overwhelmed with a car wash, on-site doctor, gyms, and even laundry facilities. One of the pivotal reasons that Google has become & remained such a huge expansion with extremely motivated and happy personnel is because of the many advantages that the company offers to its employees. While all these things can be considered as the fine examples of what makes Google worth working for and be with, the extrinsic rewards have also proven to be effective in keeping some of the best minds on the Google campus.

• The Existence Matters

Google shows how to get best of efforts from the employees. It’s not the size of the incentives; it is the acknowledgement that counts most to both the employer & the employees. By setting goals that challenge and reward the talent & the tenacity of the stuff, Google's philosophy of extending external rewards, from a cost-saving idea to pulling in a new client, will empower employees and benefit the company.

• Spreading The Rewards

Rewards are considered to be the biggest recognition of achievements & Google does acknowledge its stuff's attainment & provides with various employee appreciation programmes. Not only the years of loyal service, but the contribution to the company's success is also conceded over here. Their Founders’ Awards are presented to employees that create something of great value for Google. 

These extrinsic rewards aren’t just restricted within the Google family, but also outside of it. Google has awarded thousands of dollars to outside computer enthusiasts who’ve assisted to point out bugs in Google’s systems. 

Education Incentives For 2 Conferences

 

Source: bit.ly/1mIWKlj

2014 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference this October does escalate its intention. The five travel grants to the 2014 Grace Hopper Conference, which is dedicated for female university students and industry professionals in computer science in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, not only manifests the efforts to provide with an environment of constant learning, but it also offers the opportunity of proposals for its own Google Test Automation Conference to be held in Kirkland, Wash.

Constant going through education has always remained one of the pivotal goals of Google. Google has always been instrumental in encouraging learning & its proposal for five travel grants to the

As stated by Nicola Dixon of Google's university programs team,

"As part of Google's ongoing commitment to increase the number of women in engineering, we are excited to offer travel grants to the 2014 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference taking place in Phoenix, Ariz., from Oct. 8 to 10, 2014. "The theme for this year's conference is 'Everywhere. Everyone,' and will offer incredible opportunities for mentoring, networking, and career development." 

Google has long been contributing in training, fellowships and awards programs to encourage innovation in IT and technology, which is quite conspicuous in its upcoming learning opportunity of Google Test Automation Conference. 

What To Conclude

 

Google has not only set up an environment, where the employees feel that they can contribute to the innovative character of the company, but the academic aspect also gets uplifted here. Google yearns for academic aspirants from all backgrounds to be creators & not just consumers of tomorrow's technology.

Article Source: bit.ly/1vHjhZe

Google Mining Students’ Data through Education Apps

Source: bit.ly/1edgAa9

After the advent and development of the information technology, we can now easily access a sea of valuable and relevant information. The internet has become the most prominent resource for gathering information both for us and the major corporations. Nowadays, online data collection and data mining has become an essential process for various market research companies and other organisations.

It has been reported that some search engines and social networks follow data mining practices that do not affect the privacy of the users. Search engines like Google stores and studies the data that users search on the internet. However, most users are concerned about this as the stored data might be used against the users in near future. Generally, if a company wants to gather data from individuals then it needs to attain permission from the users for accessing their personal information and encroaching on privacy rights.

Source: bit.ly/1isr5Dp

Google has been collecting data from the users through the various services it provides in order to sell advertising. But now Google has admitted to scanning received and sent emails of innumerable students using its Apps for Education suite. It creates unauthorised and hidden profiles of them for the purpose of targeting the students with advertising. Earlier Google had launched a new privacy policy to enhance its capacity for targeting its users with ads that are developed through online data mining. Then it claimed that students who used Google Apps for Education would not be affected by this. But the recent announcement tells a completely different story.

Through its Apps for Education, Google has been gathering data by scanning and indexing the emails of 30 million users and this data is utilised by schools all across the globe, although the new consumer privacy policy does not include Google Apps for Education. The California based multinational corporation is now facing a lawsuit for inappropriately scanning personal emails to deliver advertisements as it directly violates federal and state wiretap laws. It collects the data through an automated process which can’t be turned off for potential advertising. However, Google has denied that the data is used for ad targeting to particular users.

 A Washington-based advocacy group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, is representing a group of 9 plaintiffs who affirmed that such data mining practices breach the basic principles for student privacy and it also infringes state and federal wiretap laws. The plaintiffs aim to make it a representative action lawsuit that would result in a compensation of millions of dollars and make the company more transparent about the data collection and mining practices. This case can strongly influence the interpretation of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Google Apps for Education, the free productivity apps suite is used by almost 30 million users worldwide. These are included in Google’s laptop range Chromebooks which are highly popular in American public schools. Google has admitted to scanning and indexing for different reasons, which includes advertising, as well as marking received and sent emails as important and filtering out spams. The company has confirmed that it’s not possible to turn off the system; but Google has said the data is not utilised for targeting users for Apps for Education with ads until they preferred receiving the ads.

The Director of Google Apps for Education, Bram Bout, said “Ads in Gmail are turned off by default for Google Apps for Education, and we have no plans to change that in the future.” However, the company utilises the information it collects from Apps for Education and advertise on other online services like YouTube and Google Search.

Source: bit.ly/1ip1WIu

Google has tried to dismiss the lawsuit by saying these apps are included in the new privacy policy that covers all Google services. But as the data from the Gmail accounts is utilised for the purpose of advertising, the group of plaintiffs assert that the corporation is using the information from Apps for Education emails in the same way. This is certainly a violation of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act that protects the privacy of educational records. This might result in an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and the Education Department on Google. However, the Education Department has not made any comments on this issue.

The plaintiffs are claiming that even non-Gmail users have also been affected by this data mining process of Google as they have merely sent emails to different Gmail users and have never agreed to Google's terms of services or their privacy policy. The group of plaintiffs, which also includes 2 students who have used the education suite, are looking for compensation for every user who has been affected by such controversial practices of Google. They are looking for financial damages of $100 for every affected individual for each day of violation.

Article Source: bit.ly/1m6uMUB, bit.ly/1gHlsmm