[ewoodrich]

This goes both ways -- the sheer amount of personal data that is entrusted to Google requires that they maintain a basic level of trust with their users.

If they were to flip a switch and turn Gmail-mined data into a dating site, or something, users would leave en masse. And good luck trying to entice new users with an expectation that their information would be misused.

[joeclark77]

They won't "flip a switch", they'll just wait until the relentless march of time lowers users' expectations.