[1morepassword]

> mistrust of the government has extended to this industry

I'm sorry, are we now taking the opportunity to blame big evil government for this?

The mistrust of this industry has always existed as a completely separate issue due to the utter lack of respect for privacy and privacy related laws, an attitude of which Google is one the most prominent exponents. This is a company that lobbies governments against privacy protection.

An industry that has for years tried to convince the public that surrendering your privacy to them for profit is perfectly okay has zero credibility in this matter.

[burntsushi]

You have a valid point, but you're overlooking a really crucial difference: data in the hands of a corporations means something entirely different from data in the hands of government. One of them has a monopoly on the use of force and the other doesn't. At least, that's the distinction that is important to me.

[wutbrodo]

Not to mention that one is voluntary* and one isn't. Sheesh, my grandparent comment needs a healthy dose of perspective.

*I'm using voluntary here in the most straightforward sense possible. You can switch services if you'd like, or even turn off ad targeting for most services. You cannot, however, go to a an nsa.gov link and click the "Please don't track me" box.