[phmagic]

For me, the problems with Google's latest move to capture more of my data are 1. The value prop to me is minimal compared to the amount of data they are gathering, 2. There is no way to opt out.

1. All of the hardware offerings Google made are subpar copies of other products. They did the minimum viable thing to get your data. Google's Assistant, with all the data and cloud processing power in the world, is equivalent to Siri. Assistant is not a leap forward, just a rebranded OK Google.

I'd had the same feeling in the past about Google's Social efforts. It's more blatant that Google's mining my data when their product offering is just a copy.

Contrast that with Search, Maps and GMail. When those came out, it mattered less that Google was scanning my data because the products were leaps and bounds above the competition.

2. Google has taken over enough of your daily lives with Android, GMail, Search and Maps that it's really hard to opt out.

We've vilified Apple for its closed ecosystem but we ended up with an alternative much worse in Android, one where all of the data you've generated is available for everyone to harvest.