> The ad team prevailed, this person said.
Of course they did.
A controversial idea, but you know how much easier this would be for everyone if Google offered an option for users to be paid for volunteering your information to them? It's a precedent most fledgling ad companies wouldn't be able to match... even if it's just a few dollars a month, or maybe 30ish bucks a year. It'd cut into Google's bottom line, but it would eradicate the competition.
And then on top of that, you've got the security and privacy wins by baking the product to be secure by default but allowing consumers to accept a paycheck to disable some of it for Google. That risk calculus works for plenty of people (if not for myself).
Google's wins:
• Security and Privacy by default
• Dismantling start-up competition who can't afford to pay for the data they harvest
• Growing marketshare.
Drawbacks:
• Immediate hit to Google's revenue stream
• Permanent assignment of value to data in the perception of consumers
The only big outstanding risk would be posed by rivals with large warchests able to subsidize a similar payment scheme, but honestly once that's done, the winner is a public which now has the ability to monetize their data.