Most companies want/need to make money. They think of them self, how it works. Not special for Google so if you have them targeted down as being the one and only problem you should be ridiculed :) What are alternatives and what do you use? Which company of this nature has better products, "care" more for user, are more open with info/development, has better licensing?
How are you using a computer, being online without supporting companies in one way or another? Which companies are you friends with? Is it not simply a matter of picking your poison? Because some prefer Google does not mean they are blind or will not switch if something better comes along.
-Bamse
Well I do not agree with the fact thatI I need to choose this company or that company at all. What I care and try to implement is being careful about my choices and actions. I also believe that small actions and choices can lead to big changes if they are done and repeated enough times. I just try to practice my fair share within Virtual mediums. I stay away from helping Google or other big corporate commercialization of Internet. I do not use javascript and cookies (I ban-delete them) I heavily kill and filter ads. I generally disable Flash and alikes unless it is for educational purposes. I do not use Tv , I only turn my cellphone if I need to make a call.(Cell phones can have impact on your health). Half of the time I use text based web browsers, and Internet just looks fine to me inside a text based web browser. I never participate in any kind of virtual social linking and environment like facebook, myspace twitter etc etc. I pay for my email service, web service etc, being cheap is not that cheap in my view.
Ideally all these technologies are great and offer amazing possibilities but corporitization-commercialization of all these good ideas are abusing the innovation and I personally do not want to participate in that in any way. For some reason some people like to think that all these articulated ideas can only be attached to paranoia or fear which is wrong approach to take when one needs to be critical.
Anyways I firmly believe that everyone should be careful about their own deeds. When you drive a car you need to be careful, same for browsing online or using Google services. Being careful and being critical is a good thing. I have been using computers for 20 years and browsing the net for 15 years. Being critical and trying to understand the technology behind the visible technology always helped me