I definitely value my convenience. I am a full time freelancer - working 8 hours a day + spending 1-2 hours on invoices/business/emails etc + spending a few hours developing my own products.
I don't have the time and money to invest in "wanna-be-like-Google services". Yes, Google might charge for their services later but 10 years is far away and A LOT will change by then.
Unfortunately, I can't live without money, I have to pay bills and I have to eat. If something is valuing your privacy then it costs money. Paying for each kind of service $10 or $20 every month quickly adds up. And I only talked about $10 when some service costs hundreds.
I understand the problem and I agree with you. But for example if I want to launch my own product then there are laws. Like you need to have a ToS, Privacy Policy, GDPR, Cookie policy and all the other crap. You need a business etc. In my country we pay thousands of dollars to get all this running.
We can definitely do better than that, I wish I had the time and money to do so.
A few things have been said that I feel the need to comment on
I definitely value my convenience
And if you were selling your own privacy, this would be a valid argument. But you're selling your website visitor's privacy instead, so this is not a choice you are allowed to make.
( Legally, you might not even be considered capable of making that decision for yourself. )
But for example if I want to launch my own product then there are laws.
Those laws are still valid if you use Google's services. Using third party software does not magically shift legal responsibility from you to that third party.
( Mostly, the laws also come down to "don't be a sneaky arsehole", which should be easy enough to comply with. )
So in short: yes, you are responsible, both morally and by law.
As a side-note: a lot of websites are currently not compliant with GDPR and other regulations, the hammer just has not come down on them yet.
We [..] will create some [..] alternatives for you
No we will not. The effort required to create some of these services (maps, serverless, advanced AI, ...) is monumental and not something that can be achieved by individuals or a p2p network.
You need larger structures to do these kind of things. Besides multinationals, governments or multi-government organizations (think CERN) fit this criteria. But many people feel uncomfortable with governments' technological projects.
Hey, I just wonder, what's the difference between 2008 and 2018. You say @Utkarsh Talwar, that in 10 years we won't have a choice. I'm a bit shocked, that we have the choice right now. Youtube was acquired by G in 2005. If they would spare a couple of dollars (109 $), they could gain much control even then. After 9 11 all of the privacy programs were shut off and I think for next 3 years, there was no change in the US law/programs.
My point is, what changed?
We have the tendency to decentralize our networks, but that won't solve the issue of the free services. We would still use Google maps etc.
The thing, what would change everything right now would be ... if G would turn evil. If they shifted from shady to evil. They won't do it. But that would change the state of minds of many people and the market would change. New services marketing themselves as privacy friendly (DuckDuckGo) will come up.
The point is, we act as the market. We demand, they supply. It's about people and what they want. So far everybody enjoys free services and if it increases the value of their life, not much can be done on the privacy part. sadly.
Learned Fortran on an old TI-99; forgot Fortran; learned to draw, paint, sculpt, and play violin; learned how to merge code and art, turned it into my UX/Front-end dev Frankenthing.
I guess I'm old-school, but I generally use paper maps. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that much of my job for 4 years in the Navy was open ocean navigation. Sure we had GPS, but we also used radar and even sextants. We also updated all of our own maps by hand until they were too worn, then we'd order new maps and start the updating and navigating process all over again.
Get paper maps for your area and a copy of amazon.com/American-Practical-Navi... and you'll be pretty well set. (You don't actually have to buy it through Amazon; it's just a link to show you which book is the best navigation 'bible').
Needless to say, I don't get lost easily, and I don't need Google Maps at all.
And websites? Easy. Give the company's name, phone number, and both physical and email address, with or without a static image map, and let the user decide for themselves if they want to plug the address into their GPS or Google Maps. Most will likely opt for using email or calling on the phone. Physical addresses are often just used to check to see if the business is legit or just a scam with a registered PO Box (or your country's equivalent).
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I definitely value my convenience. I am a full time freelancer - working 8 hours a day + spending 1-2 hours on invoices/business/emails etc + spending a few hours developing my own products.
I don't have the time and money to invest in "wanna-be-like-Google services". Yes, Google might charge for their services later but 10 years is far away and A LOT will change by then.
Unfortunately, I can't live without money, I have to pay bills and I have to eat. If something is valuing your privacy then it costs money. Paying for each kind of service $10 or $20 every month quickly adds up. And I only talked about $10 when some service costs hundreds.
I understand the problem and I agree with you. But for example if I want to launch my own product then there are laws. Like you need to have a ToS, Privacy Policy, GDPR, Cookie policy and all the other crap. You need a business etc. In my country we pay thousands of dollars to get all this running.
We can definitely do better than that, I wish I had the time and money to do so.
No worries bro, We(Conscious Developers) will create some cheaper and transparent alternatives for you. Hold on 😊
A few things have been said that I feel the need to comment on
And if you were selling your own privacy, this would be a valid argument. But you're selling your website visitor's privacy instead, so this is not a choice you are allowed to make.
( Legally, you might not even be considered capable of making that decision for yourself. )
Those laws are still valid if you use Google's services. Using third party software does not magically shift legal responsibility from you to that third party.
( Mostly, the laws also come down to "don't be a sneaky arsehole", which should be easy enough to comply with. )
So in short: yes, you are responsible, both morally and by law.
As a side-note: a lot of websites are currently not compliant with GDPR and other regulations, the hammer just has not come down on them yet.
No we will not. The effort required to create some of these services (maps, serverless, advanced AI, ...) is monumental and not something that can be achieved by individuals or a p2p network.
You need larger structures to do these kind of things. Besides multinationals, governments or multi-government organizations (think CERN) fit this criteria. But many people feel uncomfortable with governments' technological projects.
Hey, I just wonder, what's the difference between 2008 and 2018. You say @Utkarsh Talwar, that in 10 years we won't have a choice. I'm a bit shocked, that we have the choice right now. Youtube was acquired by G in 2005. If they would spare a couple of dollars (109 $), they could gain much control even then. After 9 11 all of the privacy programs were shut off and I think for next 3 years, there was no change in the US law/programs.
My point is, what changed?
We have the tendency to decentralize our networks, but that won't solve the issue of the free services. We would still use Google maps etc.
The thing, what would change everything right now would be ... if G would turn evil. If they shifted from shady to evil. They won't do it. But that would change the state of minds of many people and the market would change. New services marketing themselves as privacy friendly (DuckDuckGo) will come up.
The point is, we act as the market. We demand, they supply. It's about people and what they want. So far everybody enjoys free services and if it increases the value of their life, not much can be done on the privacy part. sadly.
I'm honestly scared of the future.
I guess I'm old-school, but I generally use paper maps. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that much of my job for 4 years in the Navy was open ocean navigation. Sure we had GPS, but we also used radar and even sextants. We also updated all of our own maps by hand until they were too worn, then we'd order new maps and start the updating and navigating process all over again.
Get paper maps for your area and a copy of amazon.com/American-Practical-Navi... and you'll be pretty well set. (You don't actually have to buy it through Amazon; it's just a link to show you which book is the best navigation 'bible').
And bonus in my case, I'm an expert at landnav (Army land navigation), too. armystudyguide.com/content/army_bo...
Needless to say, I don't get lost easily, and I don't need Google Maps at all.
And websites? Easy. Give the company's name, phone number, and both physical and email address, with or without a static image map, and let the user decide for themselves if they want to plug the address into their GPS or Google Maps. Most will likely opt for using email or calling on the phone. Physical addresses are often just used to check to see if the business is legit or just a scam with a registered PO Box (or your country's equivalent).