On Thu, Dec 03, 2009 at 02:04:55PM -0700, Brielle Bruns's said:
Why is it that people start cracking out at the thought of Google offering a free service that people might have an actual use for and that is completely optional and used by choice?
It's a free service people! No different then Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail, or Gmail, AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger... Use it if you want, but if you don't, so be it. They're not holding a gun to your head.
What happened to the free but private fire brigades (as popularized in the movie Gangs of...) - how did they get under the aegis of municipal govts? (Those damn socialist fire depts! :) Things that become essential services need quality management and control to ensure equal access to all and reduce abuses. Just because its free doesnt mean it's being done right or should continue as it is without oversight or regulation. In fact, Canada's privacy commissioner recently ruled on Facebook's policies and asked them to change significant things about the way the handle personal information and allow opt-ins and outs. "It's free, so why should anyone have any say in it, least of all the govt?" is your argument here. Access to internet/Email has been ruled as an essential service in (parts?) of the EU FWIG. The Canadian govt also has programs to help fund access to remote/ rural/isolated communities for eg. We all know that google is leveraging cross-referenceable information from all of its services for its profit/advantage, to the detriment of people's privacy and choice. Concentrating that much of internet services into one organization puts alot of power into one pair of hands. Information is power, and absolute power corrupts... and if it doesnt corrupt you, then at least the NSA would like to have tea and a conversation with you. /kc -- Ken Chase - ken@heavycomputing.ca - +1 416 897 6284 - Toronto CANADA Heavy Computing - Clued bandwidth, colocation and managed linux VPS @151 Front St. W.