Profit is wonderful, even more so if earned through other means than tracking users' Internet activity unknowingly. Most users of the Internet don't know that Google sees them in most corners and much of the data collection remains.
Most users don't know how to defend themselves pro-actively. For example we have the disaster of people being connected with their political views in France[1]. The same (not really, hashed emails) vulnerability was then used by the Swedish Researchgruppen[2], an extremist leftwing organization, to publish who said what under the assertion of anonymity and as a direct followup leftwing journalists are now chasing outed "trolls" with baseball bats and cameras[3] for a TV show(!).
Nedless to say these individuals are being directly targeted and harmed due to what they wrote on the Internet. It's not the fault of Disqus or Gravatar, it's the consequence of uninformed users.
Now imagine the hoards of victims that will emerge in the shadows of a Google database leak. For it will leak, of course it will, it's only a matter of time. If data can get out of North Korea it can get out of Google.
The dangers are not necessarily what Google is doing but what Google enables others to do.
Google closed down their service in China in protest againt what they said was anti democratic; remaining in the US is a hypocrisy, although perfectly aligned with other propaganda.
You are right, this is very much government driven. I agree - we should remove the government. Google can lead the revolution by closing down or switch jurisdiction in protest. Their voice is heard, ours is not.
Most users don't know how to defend themselves pro-actively. For example we have the disaster of people being connected with their political views in France[1]. The same (not really, hashed emails) vulnerability was then used by the Swedish Researchgruppen[2], an extremist leftwing organization, to publish who said what under the assertion of anonymity and as a direct followup leftwing journalists are now chasing outed "trolls" with baseball bats and cameras[3] for a TV show(!).
1: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/29/de-anonymisin...
2: http://torquemag.io/if-you-wouldnt-say-it-in-person-would-yo...
3: http://www.friatider.se/plansch-for-nya-tv3-serien-aschberg-...
Nedless to say these individuals are being directly targeted and harmed due to what they wrote on the Internet. It's not the fault of Disqus or Gravatar, it's the consequence of uninformed users.
Now imagine the hoards of victims that will emerge in the shadows of a Google database leak. For it will leak, of course it will, it's only a matter of time. If data can get out of North Korea it can get out of Google.
The dangers are not necessarily what Google is doing but what Google enables others to do.
Google closed down their service in China in protest againt what they said was anti democratic; remaining in the US is a hypocrisy, although perfectly aligned with other propaganda.
You are right, this is very much government driven. I agree - we should remove the government. Google can lead the revolution by closing down or switch jurisdiction in protest. Their voice is heard, ours is not.