Re:“Google: it is time to return to not being evil”
by _tulpa on Tuesday September 05, 2017 @11:35PM
(#15181009)
I picked on google because this whole post and the OP of this thread is about google. And you're using a lot of words to mostly say nothing.
The point is users are never going to have the power to force un-evil behaviour because the business model of data-mining companies (all of 'them', not just google) relies on social manipulation and exploiting weaknesses in human nature. Government regulation is the last resort, sure, but for this kind of business (and especially for the big players) it should be pretty damn clear by now that there is no other viable option.
We're talking past each other. Your "them" is Google. My "them" is every company, many of whom do not announce the extent of their data collection.
If breaking up Google means going after every company that collects too much data, then I suggest we first (a) take a look at how much data companies are collecting and then (b) consider where we draw the line. Doing (b) before (a) would be acting uninformed and rashly.