It's "free" in the sense that we aren't giving them money directly, but they make their billions by relying on us to use these services. Implying users who aren

It's "free" in the sense that we aren't giving them money directly, but they make their billions by relying on us to use these services. Implying users who aren't entering a credit card number are of no value to Google is either disingenuous or short sighted. Beyond just that point I think a critical dependence on these services, mixed with a general tech illiteracy and an uncaring corporation is a dangerous situation to be in. One could argue that it's the user who is responsible for maintaining access to their email account, but the reality is that the vast majority of users are not educated in these areas and absolutely need help. A corporation that won't help them use the services they provide deserves to be replaced by one that will -- unfortunately, Google is so dominant that the chance of someone seeking out and finding ProtonMail or rolling their own server is tiny. It's hard to compete with Gmail, even when you have options like ProtonMail which provide excellent customer service (with phone numbers!) I'm just thinking out loud. It seems like a problem to me. Dunno how to solve it.