I'm saying this on a site where I assume people are able to think a little beyond the basics, yes. Google spying on its customers would result in an amazing la

I'm saying this on a site where I assume people are able to think a little beyond the basics, yes. Google spying on its customers would result in an amazing lawsuit. People tear apart and reverse-engineer these things for fun and it would have been discovered in due course. Google knows this. So, no, it's not an "obvious" option at all. You're starting from a position of "of course google is evil". I'm starting from "how much sense does that make?". We've reached different conclusions because of this. Pedantically listing a bunch of other options is missing the point, and they basically all fall under option 2. As for your perceived "pro-government" and "pro-google" views on HN: people have different views on many topics. Maybe this is the only place you encounter views that differ from your own?