Gmail and FB happen to have both been launched in Spring 2004. Plenty of people were concerned back then about the privacy consequences of allowing Google to s

Gmail and FB happen to have both been launched in Spring 2004. Plenty of people were concerned back then about the privacy consequences of allowing Google to search your mail, and plenty of people didn't want to engage with FB. I think the Gmail situation was clearer at the time. The EFF has of course been concerned with privacy since the 1990s. Speaking of 2004, in 2004 the EFF was on the board of organizers of the fourteenth conference on "Computers, Freedom, and Privacy" (http://www.cfp2004.org/program/speakers.html http://www.cfp2004.org/program/speakers.html), a conference series they founded in 1991 IIRC. I'm not immersed in the history here, but my recollection is that relatively more time was spent on copyright and privacy w/r/t governments, vs. privacy w/r/t corporations.