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One thing that I find very interesting in the comments is people's approach to Google services. It's no secret that Google makes money from ads and models based

One thing that I find very interesting in the comments is people's approach to Google services. It's no secret that Google makes money from ads and models based on the user usage on their free services. A lot of people are complaining that if they disable data collection, try their hardest to not contribute to these data models and block the ads with ad blocker then some feature doesn't work for them. So you just want to use Google services completely for free without contributing anything. Other people complain about permissions that Assistant or other products require. There's always a very good reason why these permissions are required that is not monetary. Each permission request goes through a lot of scrutiny, lawyers reviews, product reviews, approvals, etc. You can ask why disabling some permissions affects features that shouldn't need it. Sometimes it is lawyers fault, sometimes it's just engineers not supporting properly each of 2^{number of permissions} permission combinations.

luckylion 7y ago
> So you just want to use Google services completely for free without contributing anything. Not necessarily. I believe that google's services are good enough to use them, and I'd certainly pay a few bucks a month to do so and be their customer - and not be the product that they sell to their customers. I'm also pretty sure that they'd make more money off of me paying them for providing a service to me than they make by selling my data to advertisers (me blocking ads and all that). If the only way of "contributing" however is to give up my privacy, then yes, I don't want to contribute.
- britch 7y ago
  This is it for me as well. A lot of online publications frustrate me with this as well. They're only supported through advertisements, and request that you disable your ad blocker. LET ME GIVE YOU MONEY! I would pay for the ability to read your site. Right now I have the choice of ad blocking and preventing them from earning much of anything or giving up my privacy to support them. It's especially ironic given that many of these sites are increasingly writing about the dangers of "surveillance capitalism" and big tech.
  - luckylion 7y ago
    Yeah. I understand it may not be worth it to set up regular membership programs and collect fees for that, but at least have a tip jar.
- SquareWheel 7y ago
  Why not pay for a GSuite account? That seems to meet your criteria.
  - luckylion 7y ago
    That would be more of a "paying for something", I think. I don't use Google Apps, I have a gmail account that I don't regularly use. I'm a simple man, I just use search (and it's variations) and maps, and the occasional YT video. I understand that GSuite doesn't touch those, so while a good idea from a moral view ("I can't pay you for this, so I'll pay you for that which I never use but can pay for"), it doesn't change the privacy invading parts of the products I actually do use.

luckylion 7y ago

> So you just want to use Google services completely for free without contributing anything. Not necessarily. I believe that google's services are good enough to use them, and I'd certainly pay a few bucks a month to do so and be their customer - and not be the product that they sell to their customers. I'm also pretty sure that they'd make more money off of me paying them for providing a service to me than they make by selling my data to advertisers (me blocking ads and all that). If the only way of "contributing" however is to give up my privacy, then yes, I don't want to contribute.

britch 7y ago
This is it for me as well. A lot of online publications frustrate me with this as well. They're only supported through advertisements, and request that you disable your ad blocker. LET ME GIVE YOU MONEY! I would pay for the ability to read your site. Right now I have the choice of ad blocking and preventing them from earning much of anything or giving up my privacy to support them. It's especially ironic given that many of these sites are increasingly writing about the dangers of "surveillance capitalism" and big tech.
- luckylion 7y ago
  Yeah. I understand it may not be worth it to set up regular membership programs and collect fees for that, but at least have a tip jar.
SquareWheel 7y ago
Why not pay for a GSuite account? That seems to meet your criteria.
- luckylion 7y ago
  That would be more of a "paying for something", I think. I don't use Google Apps, I have a gmail account that I don't regularly use. I'm a simple man, I just use search (and it's variations) and maps, and the occasional YT video. I understand that GSuite doesn't touch those, so while a good idea from a moral view ("I can't pay you for this, so I'll pay you for that which I never use but can pay for"), it doesn't change the privacy invading parts of the products I actually do use.