Wow, how things have changed. I've been here since back when Google could do no wrong. Now they're a poster child for shady surveillance capitalism.
Same with Elon Musk. I remember him being compared to a comic book hero. Now he's an alt-right racist (if you are a leftist) or an evil globalist technocrat (if you are a rightist).
It may be hard to recall now, but their big thing was actually less intrusive and less scammy ads than the state of the art at the time.
It's also worth mentioning that lots of businesses that you pay money to, track you in similar ways. The origin of it was probably supermarket loyalty cards in the pre-internet era.
The association with no-cost products is not really appropriate, and mostly seems to be progaganda from people with other business models. It was the web scale and pure digital products that let the cost drop to near zero, which synergises with ad-supported offerings, (just as "free" ad-supported TV and radio were a thing for decades). However, it also allows other business models, such as non-profits like Wikipedia, netflix subscriptions, or subsidized by necessary hardware purchases.
Similarly, just because you pay money for various Google services, doesn't really gave them any motivation to not track you.
I also don't watch ad supported TV. T-Mobile has a promotion where you can get free Paramount+ with ads. I tried the free offering for 2 hours and I said forget it and upgraded to the ad free tier.
The only time that ads don't really bother me are the rare occasions I watch sports. The breaks are more natural.
> Same with Elon Musk. I remember him being compared to a comic book hero. Now he's an alt-right racist (if you are a leftist) or an evil globalist technocrat (if you are a rightist).
He hasn't changed though, and little has changed in what he's actually doing too. If anything, he's more mellow now than he was when he was younger. People's impressions of him have been highly twisted IMO.
Yeah, he's neither a comic book hero nor a monster. He's a rich dude who's pretty smart and decided to risk a bunch of his helping build up companies working in important innovative fields, but unfortunately he also trolls and overshares on Twitter like a 13 year old.
Same with Elon Musk. I remember him being compared to a comic book hero. Now he's an alt-right racist (if you are a leftist) or an evil globalist technocrat (if you are a rightist).