Ah, being the product is the convenience that too many (majority) have no problem with. Indications are that they will see ads anyway, or why should they worry that their information is used for ads, or, most disturbing, its not important information

Now imagine if the Pixel (Google’s smartphone) was equal in power/performance to the iPhone of the same generation (it’s not, and it’s not even close). Think about Google charging $1000 and then selling $1605 (on average!) of your personal data out the back door. Why wouldn’t you just get the iPhone? This is still assuming they offer similar performance. They do not.

I get it, I get it, iPhones don’t have memory card slots, headphone jacks, and you can’t sideload apps to them. Pixels don’t have memory card slots or headphone jacks either. They don’t come with more storage. (Both Apple and Google sell cloud storage.) And Google keeps talking about taking sideloading “any time now.” They keep walking it back, but then a couple weeks later they’re threatening to take it away again. Look how long it took them to take your memory card slot and headphone jack. Mere months after they bought ads blasting Apple for it. Same with removing the charger from the box. Attack ad blasting Apple for doing it, then they follow suit the next year.

I think it’s fine for Google to make money by offering a premium product (Google Maps, Google Docs, Gmail, Search, and others) for free and selling your data off the back porch, as long as the consumer understands that they are the product. But the second you become Google’s customer, you should stop being their product. I think it’s high time people stand against the double dipping. Because I think Apple’s had enough of Google getting away with double dipping, and now they’re thinking of doing the same. Maybe less so now that the bean counter is out as CEO (as of 1 September) and an engineer is in, but he still answers to the board, who still answer to the shareholders.

uBlock Origin, non google search, no gmail, user approx $0

Or I wish it were so, but they’ve probably got a profile, if only by association, they can sell anyway. Also they likely charge even if the ad is blocked. Do no evil my ass.