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Companies don't keep promises. No company that buys another is going to be bound by something some developer said three years prior.

I wonder if small startups doing popular things for geeks are heading towards a similar backlash against "selling out" that the alternative music scene had in the 80's and 90's.

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I think this is a good analogy. I was involved with indie bands in the 90s and startups now (disclosure: I work on Disconnect, a Ghostery alternative) and have been saying how much the scenes are alike.

But the band - I mean, startup - has to take some responsibility. In this case, I think they have to take a lot of the responsibility. When you sell your startup to a company called Better Advertising (Evidon's name before switching), can you really be surprised when the company starts selling your users' data to advertisers?

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