I think Microsoft is suffering from the same thing (and probably most sizable tech companies), and why I'm moving off Windows. I'll probably bite that bullet this week.
There's "Suggested Apps" and recommended items, which might as well be ads. I've never logged in with a MS ID either, but I've seen them, and they're on by default (because of course they are).
Forcing people to use your product is disrespectful.
Since when does *respect* figure into it? Spying on people is equally disrespectful. Yet the entire business model of personalized advertising is built around it.
If Google was respectful of "users", they would be out of business
HINT: Obviously, this article's take on their business model is wrong. Advertisers are their only real *customers*. Users are the *product* they sell.
> In the end, we pre-installed it on every device we sold. Then we forcibly pushed it to every supported phone on our network. The backlash was incredible. As you might expect, people think of their phones as their own personal space. Having a new app shoved on there felt like an invasion. It took up memory space, true, but more importantly it took up psychological space. We had reminded customers that we thought of them as little more than cattle; a resource we controlled with an aim to extract value.
But what was the overall result of that decision? Did people put in the effort to remove it? Or did they come to use it? Did the mobile operator regret doing it?
