If I had mod points, I would mod this as "funny". Is that really what ALL the "experts" are claiming these days? I even went over to bing.com and asked about this. I am not seeing this overwhelming regard for WP8 that you speak of.

But if you have such a big problem with the UI, why not just point your own mail program at Google's IMAP interface?

Yeah, no, this never happened. Gmail never started randomly adding "suggested" recipients to your emails. The most gmail will do is put a little comment on the side that says, "Consider CCing the following people." Gmail has never added recipients automatically.

What probably happened was that some people got confused about reply-all versus reply-sender, or they mis-clicked on something, or they got confused about how groups worked, so they complained about their misunderstanding publicly and it became a banner for the paranoid to pick up and run with.

Actually, Google is a lot better at protecting your data than you are. Google has no connection to FBI/CIA/TSA/MAFIAA/Obama. If those entities want your data, they need a warrant, and Google lawyers fight them every step to make sure there is just cause. If the data is in your house, they will just go there instead and take it. Who do you think is better at fighting legal battles, you or the Google law team?

Are for any other sort of unauthorized access to your email, good luck even getting into a Google datacenter parking lot, let alone the many many layers of physical security at the site. Even if you somehow managed to make it onto the datacenter floor, and somehow managed to figure out which of the millions of constantly shifting disk drives held the data you want, it wouldn't do you any good, since the data is encrypted and the keys are stored in a completely different, secure location. To steal the data from your home, one need only wait until you leave, then kick in the door and walk off with your PC.

I'm picturing the situation where Steve Jobs opens a supply closet and a startled asian Sony engineer yells, "supplies!"

When has Google done anything evil? Seriously.

Certainly they have done a few things that, with wild speculation and attention-whore media reports and tragically hip IT bloggers making crazy leaps of logic, could be considered as having the potential to be evil.

But what evil things has Google actually done?

It was designed from the start, by Google, to be hackable.

There is an interesting Buddhist saying that one should try to act the same way whether one is alone or in public.

On the other hand, can't we just require that these things have a visible LED turned on when they are recording?

If you want to see all the information that Google has about you, just go to your Google account dashboard and look for yourself.

Google is interested in your favorite color and hobbies and stuff like that. They don't give a shit about your personal secrets.

It doesn't matter what your intent was. You are free to file a claim with whatever intent you want, but if you have no evidence to back it up, you are subject to a counter-claim.

I'm confused. When has Google ever sold personal information?

Oh, you were just taking a potshot. Do carry on.

Actually, he could come out ahead. He can file a counter-claim against you for "barristry". That's when you file against someone without a reasonable belief that you have a valid claim. He could collect damages.

Whether it is evil or not depends on what people do with it. Email is not evil, but can be used for evil. Anything can be used for evil.

The person who submitted this summary is obviously an anti-Google FUD spreader. They submitted the story, referred to a secondary article instead of the original story, because they have an agenda. They purposely colored the story as "Google sells software for tyrannical bosses to put leashes on every employee." If someone actually does that, then yes, they are evil.

If they use this for the purpose for which Google designed it, I don't see how that is evil. Which delivery vehicle is closest to the pickup? Which ambulance is closest to the accident? Exactly when will my taxi arrive?

Seriously, think it through.

I work for Google. I don't see where Google has become evil, unless I were dumb enough to believe all the FUD and sensationalism spread by a certain few companies, and bloggers who are trying to get attention. I get it: It's the hipster geek thing to do, to cry out about how Google is evil, so you can look like you are wise and worldly, when in fact you are just parroting FUD.

I had to fly out to one of the data centers recently, so I reserved a ride from one of the shuttle companies that services the local airport. Because they tracked the location of the shuttle, I was able to hang out at my desk and do email until I got an automated alert that the shuttle had almost arrived. This, instead of spending 30 minutes sitting outside with my bags as the shuttle encounters inevitable traffic delays. This is what the tracking system does. If some company uses it for evil purposes, then complain about that company. Just as some companies can use firewalls and routers to block or monitor traffic. But those things are not evil in themselves.

Get a clue.

Here is the Google deal: There are producers and there are consumers and they make up the economy. That's just a fact. And, unless you are a hermit, you participate in one or both groups. Producers and consumers want to find each other. How? Well, there was the old way, where producers spent a fortune broadcasting their message all over the place, littering TV, print media, and your mailbox with crap you did not want to see. And fortunes were spent on that, more than small businesses could afford, and whole forests were destroyed. There is a large cost of entry so you could blanket the world with your message which got lost among all the other large companies doing the same thing.

Or, we could target the messages. Much more efficient. Small players can now afford to advertise. The change to consumers is that they still see as many ads, but they are now less random. Small producers can afford to get their message to just the people who might be interested. Small consumers get tons of free services in exchange to seeing ads that might be something they are interested in. Everybody wins, except the conventional companies who have a vested interest in maintaining their distribution and information hegemonies.

No company does more to protect your privacy than Google. Your information never leaves the datacenter and is never viewed by human eyes. You can see just what information they collect by visiting your account page. You can use Chrome Incognito mode to do things you don't want anyone knowing about. You can turn off tracking completely if you like. If you leave it on, you are helping promote a more efficient economy where small businesses can compete against larger companies with huge advertising budgets. You are free to turn it all off, but don't turn it off just because some hipster IT geek likes to shout wolf.