Zatera Ul

Prediction Six: Within my lifetime, Google will turn evil.

I already gave my reasons in a comment a while back. Basically, Google’s stated goal is to have all the world’s information streams pass through it. Add that to the tendency of governments to seek total power, and the future doesn’t look too cheery. Google is only staring down China right now because there are other (and more popular) search engine options there, and Google needs to appear user-protective to get a foothold in China. But imagine a scenario where Google is the only allowed search engine, email, map provider, document manager, and so on, to make it more convenient for the overlords. In short, I don’t think we can depend on Google to defend our freedoms for us.

Also see the Onion article: “Google Responds To Privacy Concerns With Unsettlingly Specific Apology”.