[entropy47]

This chain is pretty wild to me. I don't know if I'm just too pragmatic, too close to people whose lives have been ruined by drugs, or too much of a big tech apologist - but it seems impossible to me to draw any parallel between drug dealing and working at Google. And I'm just talking ethically - to say nothing of legally.

Maybe I'm a consequentialist and you're more of a deontologist? I see a big distinction between "I lost my money, my home and eventually my life" and "I feel my privacy has been infringed on at a conceptual level in the pursuit of ad sales". Do you think there are Google products out there that are actually harmful and ruining people's lives in a concrete way? I would love to hear about how, if yes.

The other interpretation is you have a much higher estimation of drug dealers than I do. No dramas with people dealing pot or pills, I'm talking meth and heroin.

[version_five]

"Drug dealers" are the result of regulatory failure - the war on drugs, and a failure of government to provide proper healthcare. People want drugs - no doubt there are some unscrupulous, or evil drug dealers, but it's certainly not a question of some evil cabal poisoning society, it's rational market actors working to meet a demand. Don't hate the player, hate the game.