[Google’s partnership with Starbucks][1], as described by Kevin Lo on the Google Blog:
> That’s why we’re teaming up with Starbucks to bring faster, free WiFi connections to all 7,000 company-operated Starbucks stores in the United States over the next 18 months. When your local Starbucks WiFi network goes Google, you’ll be able to surf the web at speeds up to 10x faster than before. If you’re in a Google Fiber city, we’re hoping to get you a connection that’s up to 100x faster.
Free WiFi. Hosted — and likely, in part, paid for — by Google at 7,000+ locations in the US. That’s a staggering thought. All your Frappuccino®-fueled internet browsing behavior is now passing through the NSA *and* Google. Who do you trust more with your data? Which has the more palatable mission: fighting crime, or making money?
For all the wrongs the NSA is perpetrating, they’re not doing this to profit financially. NSA contractors are doing it for a profit, but NSA contractors aren’t using your data for profit, they are using the fact that they can create tools to collect your data for profit. Google though? As far as I know, Google doesn’t fight crime: They make money — lots of money — with your data, now siphoned away as you sip your quadruple-shot dissolved sugar, all without you knowing.
Perhaps you think I’m overreacting, and that Google won’t collect a thing because they’re moral, but to that I would ask: Why would they offer free WiFi to begin with?
[1]: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/starbucks-wifi-goes-google.html
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