[phmagic]

Google is a for-profit enterprise. Currently the company has optimized its products for what users want: reliability, security, ease of use. The (sad) fact is that users tend to undervalue their own privacy and data because a single person's data is not very valuable. They don't see the power of aggregate data.

The title is a little misleading because it's not Google who choosing this balance between privacy and convenience. We, the users, are making this choice. This is what concerns me.

If users choose privacy over convenience, Google would happily oblige. I'm confident of this seeing the way that the "organic" movement has taken hold.