In what situation would this be otherwise? "I'm going to do something that takes time and money and ultimately hurts me" - Masochists of America, unite under one CA?
Even if Jesus Christ managed a certificate authority, someone would complain. Everyone - even G-d - has a conflict of interest.
That's exactly what I'm saying, you can't expect one entity to solve this.
There's clearly some good people working at worthwhile things at Google. My concern is that a lot of those things doesn't end up being pushed by Google. Not only because it might hurt themselves, but because of non-obvious outside influence.
We shouldn't forget that many things we accuse the NSA for like lack of accountability, overzealous collection of data, the undermining of privacy etc. are all things we can expect from a corporation.
We also expect the GDP of over half of our society from corporations - the balance from government and non profits.
My point was that everyone has self interest, if one that's influential and has resources comes up with a proposal that is reasonably transparent and beneficial, it seems self-destructive to reject it out of distrust.
I don't necessarily think it's a bad proposal. It's seems rather good actually. Google is still one of the most tracking entities on the Internet and they can't really argue with NSLs even if they wanted to.
I just think the US government is the best organization in the world in asserting pressure and that Google, even if they really wanted to (which isn't clear), isn't going to end up with an agenda hugely contradictory to the US governments wishes. The US has a long history of using industry for geopolitical goals and the tech industry isn't any different.
If we do end up with a system that is in line with peoples fundamental rights I'll be the first one to commend them for it though.
Even if Jesus Christ managed a certificate authority, someone would complain. Everyone - even G-d - has a conflict of interest.