I received a fax this week from Google Analytics, telling me that Dave was one of their customers, and inviting me to a presentation about him. So I went along to it, and they talked about their service and showed Dave’s blog on a big PowerPoint slide with his slogan “in which someone you’ve never heard of writes about things you have no interest in”. Then there were drinks and canapes under an enormous projected photo of him. I mingled and we talked about George Bush and Lost, but mostly about what kind of stats Dave might derive from Google, and what they might learn about him.

You see Dave’s signed up to Google Analytics. He’s said “If you have your own site you might find it useful to sign up” so I went into it (again) and went two clicks further than I’d done before. And I saw the licence which, among other things, says this:

7. PUBLICITY

Unless You notify Google otherwise in writing, You hereby grant to Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries a limited license to use Your trade and business names, trade marks, service marks, logos, domain names and other distinctive brand features (whether registered or not) (collectively, the “Brand Features”) in any presentations, marketing materials, customer lists, and financial reports produced for, by or on behalf of Google. Further, Unless You notify Google otherwise in writing, Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries retain the right to identify You as a customer and/or to issue a press release that, at a minimum, discloses You have licensed the Service and that the Service is Your preferred web analytics package.

I’ve not looked at the rest of the licence, and I don’t feel the need to. If they were signing up the likes of IBM or Amazon then IBM or Amazon would need to give their express permission before Google could use them as publicity. But since it’s you or me, it’s Google that calls the shots.

Or you can choose not to sign up.