Let me repeat this very clearly here. HN folks seem to think that developers in the internet at large are "good" and google is evil. Or that things like google

Let me repeat this very clearly here. HN folks seem to think that developers in the internet at large are "good" and google is evil. Or that things like google asking random developers from china to go through a security assessment is appalling. I can tell you that for businesses and others spending money (ie, where the business is the customer and not the product) the perspective is opposite this. A business wants google to track users so logins from unusual locations / devices go through more rigorous authentication. That is considered a benefit, not a harm. A business wants google to scan everyone's email - for everything from phising to spam to malware. This is considered a benefit not a harm. I think folks here underestimate just how trusted and core to many individuals and businesses google is. Many folks trust google MORE than they do their own goverment, including on issues of spying on emails and more. The goverment leaks everything - from photos of dead celebrities to tax returns. Many goverment are active in spying on their users as much as they are able. Around the world, brands like Apple and Google considered evil here on HN, have just insane brand value. Again, Google are idiots if they were to go the facebook route and not keep the private info they hold pretty secured. The downsides are SO much larger for them (see Cambridge Analytics) than the upsides of allowing random third party internet developers to access someone's email on an ongoing and programmatic way without these types of controls.