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> If it chose to, Google could protect users by developing services that do not rely on Google itself examining their personal data. I'm perplexed that you'd c
by burntsushi 13y ago
> If it chose to, Google could protect users by developing services that do not rely on Google itself examining their personal data.
I'm perplexed that you'd call me idealistic for not wanting a coercive third party secretly taking a company's data by force, and in the next sentence suggest that a company should provide services to me in exchange for nothing.
I give my data to Google. In exchange, I get their services and they get to serve me advertisements. I am happy with this arrangement. Wanting my government to have some semblance of the checks and balances encoded in our founding document is neither unreasonable nor idealistic.
- embolism 13y agoI'm not calling you idealistic for what you want. I want a trustworthy government too. I'm calling you idealistic because you are putting your hopes in an idealistic solution when Google could provide you with a technical solution now. One type of check and balance against untrustworthy governments is robust civil institutions. Technology companies could be helping to provide those. It seems to me that in the presence of an untrustworthy government, a state of affairs that had existed throughout history, you prefer ad-supported free email to privacy.