Structural remedies
The US government is considering breaking
Google up into separate
companies.
Would that do anything about the injustices of Google? Let's look at
them:
-
Snooping on its users actions and identities.
-
Selling ads based on that data.
-
Requiring users to run nonfree software to use the services.
-
Pressuring users to identify themselves to use most services.
-
Using DRM for distribution of some ethings.
I don't see how splitting up Google would correct these.
Perhaps Google itself would not use the collected data as a base
for advertising. Perhaps instead Google would sell the use of
that data to various advertising companies. I don't think that
would make that use of personal data acceptable and it would not help with the others.