Nobody has put up any signs saying anyone is free to sniff their internet traffic.

Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak isn't alone with this opinion. It's been one of the most common opinions of WP7 phone users. It's true, too. Windows Phone 7 UI is beautiful and even better than iPhone's, not to mention Android. Microsoft really outdid themselves with that. Where MS has failed is to get good partners to actually make the devices as Google has tricked their way in with Android. However, that is about to change now that Nokia will be putting out quality WP7 smart phones. I know I will be getting one soon. The platform has been growing intensely lately, especially on app and developers front. C# and Visual Studio are great for developing for WP7.

Yes, it's called disassembly. On top of that you have contractual agreement and privacy policy. If they lie in that it would get them in some serious lawsuits. You also have your usual monitoring and analyzing software.

Just because it's closed source doesn't mean you cannot analyze what it does. The situation is ultimately same as with open source. Who actually checks the full code of their open source software and fully understands what every part of it does? Note that many things can be hidden in algorithms or via other tricks even if the source is available as it is. This is an old trick that predates computers and modern times.

This is also one of the reasons I would never trust Google or their services. They are basically build and run on money got from lies. Often the advertisers aren't even the real product makers. They are affiliates who get a commission from each sale and have no problem lying to you. And the more information you give Google the more you get targeted. That is pure evil.

I appreciate my privacy so I buy desktop software that doesn't snoop on everything I do and works on my local computer instead of website (SaaS). That's why I use Microsoft Office - a full office suite that respects your privacy - instead of Google's hosted services that snoop your data.

It would be nice to take a sail on such stylish, vintage ship. I hope they also have dress codes for women so they will wear vintage dresses. After having a nice dinner I will take some nice lady to her room and draw her naked. Then have sex with her in a vintage car. And die after we crash into New Zealand.

Also; Quality, easy of use, availability of (commercial) software etc are the better selling points. Frankly, free is one of the shittiest selling points for corporations. The cost of OS licenses is ridiculously small compared to everything else. Hell, employers have to pay almost 100x the price of Windows/Mac license to one employee per month, with taxes and benefits. If things work better with Windows/Mac then it's a no-brainer. With servers the cost are much higher, and Linux been used with them a lot more and has better compability, so it's less of an issue. But even still Linux has only managed to get about half and the other half goes to Windows Server, which admittedly is used more in internal-facing servers.

"Free" just isn't good selling point for companies. The time you need to waste with Linux costs a lot more than something that just works. Hobbyists might value their time less, but employee hour for a company costs A LOT.

I am using WLAN in the place I live. The same one that many other residents use. It is password protected, but once you login, everyone is still broadcasting their data to me also. Is it ok for me to sniff that data too? In the same way, would it be ok for me to plug-in to your internet connection outside your house and sniff that data too? I mean, it's obviously your fault since you didn't use VPN. And, would it be OK for ISP's and VPN providers to sniff data that goes across them? After all, you're sending it to them yourself...

Well, the report confirms what was in the summary and title of this story.

The amount of wrongful moderation towards bunch and anyone critical of Google in this story is quite astonishing. Actually, not just this story but in every story on Slashdot. I'm a big fan of Google's products, I use gmail and my Android phone every day (even develop for it), but even I think this is scary and completely unacceptable. Just because its Google it doesn't make it right. You shouldn't give them a free pass on privacy violating stuff like this just because they somewhat support open source (not that much actually). In fact, Google should be held to higher standards if you like them because of that. Did you know that Google is secretly backing CISPA? At least Microsoft and Apple do it in open. But of course that wouldn't be good for Google's image.

It's time to end this abuse of mod points towards anything negative about Google and think of their actions as their own. And boy have they changed over the past 5 years. But like with piracy, I think that many Slashdotters just like them because they give free stuff. It's not so much about the privacy. If you cared about privacy you wouldn't use hosted services anyway, but desktop apps like Office.