Google's Plans to Offer Free WiFi Face Criticism

"We don't want to use it and we don't want anyone else to be able to use it either!" According to an article over at e-Week, that's the sentiment being offered up by the ACLU and some other San Francisco based critics of Google and Earthlink's plans to offer free and low-cost WiFi to the San Francisco area. The critics claim that Google's plans will require "too much" from users of the free service and therefore, the city should think carefully before accepting the plan.

From the article:

Apparently, the issue is that critics feel that Google's plans to track a user's location in order to deliver geographically targeted ads that would support the free service simply requires too much information from users. In other words...the "price" of the free service is to high.

My response? "Whatever!"

It's the same way I felt when Google started facing massive negative feedback about their Gmail service. People complained that Google's plans to scan the content of email in order to serve up matching ads was a violation of privacy. The argument against the new WiFi service seems to stem from the same type of argument.

What people fail to realize is that "free" comes with a price. No one forced people to use Gmail and no one is going to force San Francisco residents to use Google's free WiFi service. In fact, Google and Earthlink plan to offer a non-ad supported version for $20 a month.

This isn't even wanting to have your cake and eat it to. It's more like wanting someone to bake the cake for you, deliver it to your house, and then leave so that you can eat every single crumb by yourself.