As if things aren't already going badly for Google these days, there's more bad news.
Google e-books hasn't exactly taken the market by storm. In fact, they're lagging well behind Amazon and Apple. Not what a money-making entity is looking for when it hopes to drive eyeballs to the paid advertising on its site.
It's recently been discovered that hackers have phished g-mail and stolen passwords. Not all bad, if the invading hordes download a quantity of free books from the Google bookstore and push the numbers up a few ticks.
Google believes that the hackers are based in China, and the g-mail accounts they went after belong to government officials, Chinese dissidents, and journalists.
By gaining control of the accounts, the hackers could forward messages to themselves, which of course would be ideal for the Chinese who so love to spy on their enemies.
The question is, what sort of intelligent government official would use a free g-mail account for anything? No one considers Google's service to be secure.
In most cases, the g-mail account is used for contacts that might likely become spam magnets. Use them and throw them away, start with a new account. It's all free.
China cannot allow its people to become educated about the outside world, as it leads to dissatisfaction and agitation. Google has all those free books that no one seems to be paying attention to, and we all know how dangerous a book can be.
Add to that the ease of communication that is the Internet, and it's easy to see why the Chinese military would want absolute control over the system. They can count on those who don't consider account security when they set up their free g-mail account, who send all sorts of communications without allowing for the fact that you get what you pay for.
When it's free, don't expect firewalls and spam filters...and act accordingly.
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