Before technology blossomed into a tool that everyone around the world would come to admire, most people thought that it might also be the answer for the complications we had to face with regulation and compliance. The concept of regulating different spheres of our life has always pulled conflicting opinions from people. Even though everyone stays in agreement about its core intention, not many out there prefer the way things are done in terms of applying that intention in a practical setting. Several surveys over the years have painted a very clear picture of what people think of the compliance landscape, and it will be a safe assumption to make that the consensus is far from pretty. Nevertheless, it was all expected to change with the introduction of bleeding-edge strategies, but so far, it hasn’t quite lived up to those expectations of being a walk in the park. Instead, the war between companies and regulatory bodies has only shifted from a physical environment to the digital realm.
Ever since the businesses have committed themselves to technology, it’s been a smooth and productive ride for them. They are able to explore untapped avenues, and as a result of that, bigger profit bites have become up for grabs. Regulatory bodies, on the other hand, have caught themselves struggling to retain a clear view of the situation at times, eventually turning to tech-driven methods. It looked like they’ll have to cover a lot of ground to get close to the companies they are supposed to govern, but they are closing the gap really quickly, and Google has learned that the hard way.
Google, as useful as it might be, bears a long history of being slammed by regulatory bodies for being opaque about its practices. The company has offered many explanations over the years, but with record number of antitrust lawsuits during the last year, Google had no option but to make a serious move. In their response, as Danny Sullivan noted, Google has decided to launch the redesigned version of its repository, which does the work of detailing how its search engine functions. The information available in the repository provides you with a view of things like company’s approach and how it ranks different websites. Entities such as Department of Justice have used the argument of Google being a “monopoly” time and again, and on those basis, they have torn into the company for not being transparent enough about their operations. It remains to be seen whether these changes by Google are going to be enough to pacify these governing bodies.