[icarus127]

    Not only are those wise words for users, enabling that
    way of working, and making security an easy verifiable  
    default, and, is going to be the only way to heal this  
    problem for US tech companies. And they have been slow 
    to  get started.

The trouble is the service providers have a significant vested interest in having access to your data. Google will never implement a system where only you have access to your data because they make a lot of money by accessing your data.

Depending on where you want to draw the line it would not be a stretch to say that an advertising company like Google would be eliminating their entire revenue stream by implementing such a system.

[lern_too_spel]

The reason Google or Microsoft or Yahoo won't implement it is that only on the order of a few thousand people want it. Most people would much rather be able to search their email from any device, which requires the server to have an unencrypted copy.

These companies don't bother with products that have such a niche market. There are plenty of smaller companies that do though, so I don't see anything to complain about.

[Zigurd]

If only a "few thousand" people want security, then they can't be losing a significant number of customers.

[Zigurd]

I already pay Google for things they can't sufficiently monetize with ads. Why not offer service and charge for it?

[icarus127]

Sure but unless this new service is along the lines of "I generate my own key pair _and then only ever give Google my public key_" there's no way they're getting me to trust them. And I seriously doubt that's something they are going to try to do, it's to much of a niche market for Google IMO.

[saraid216]

Because that would be a major business pivot?

[dreamfactory2]

Isn't business supposed to adapt to the environment rather than vice versa?

[saraid216]

Are people no longer clicking on ads? I'm pretty sure Google is still raking the millions and billions it's getting from ad revenue. The environment isn't actually changing.

[dreamfactory2]

Hmm this thread is full of people talking about pulling their data off google, so I guess we are talking about longer term viability of free google apps.

[saraid216]

> I guess we are talking about longer term viability of free google apps.

Yeah, they've already disabled getting new instances. If you have free Google Apps, you're basically on borrowed time.