Wishful thinking department....
At some point Google will find a regulator who doesn’t roll over. And increasingly, people who want to look the gift horse of “free stuff” in the mouth.
To require a regulator who doesn't roll over will be almost impossible. Maybe there is one but their handlers (the legislatures who control the regulator) are too deep into the pockets of the big corporations and Google's pockets are very deep.
The only change that could be brought will be by the users/products of Google. I for a minute don't believe the "do not track" tick boxes work. There's just too much at stake. Even not using Google for search or anything is impossible as they "own" too many websites by placing their ads on them. "Do not track" and not using their services is a start. Adblock is another start (athough they don't block everything by rote of someone's wallet...)
It will take a massive uproar from the users/product/great unwashed for things to change. Google learned when they were an upstart how to manipulate and also how to prevent any new upstarts from moving them to the dustbin of history like AltaVista, WebCrawler, etc.
Yes, they are a problem. If Google suddenly disappeared from the universe tomorrow, would the Internet be broken? No, not really, but the floodgate would be open for another battle for the throne which would not end well for anyone except for the winner of that battle who would be the new Google.
What's the answer..? Go back to my first paragraph. Those who are elected to the various legislatures need to change as do election laws and finance laws. But they're not going to destroy their gravy train. Even term limits would be good but we've seen how than goes over as people in power want to stay in power.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
