Google Reader Died Because Of Privacy Concerns

Google Reader is much mourned by its diehard community, and many were wondering why, in light of the rage, Google didn’t just make it a paid product. The short answer is that Google knows so much about you it was terrified Reader might somehow violate your privacy.

Reader apparently fell victim to the fact that Google has so much information about you stored across so many platforms in so many places in so many countries it was literally too expensive to figure out whether or not Reader was violating some privacy law in some podunk backwater like, oh, the European Union:

…every team needs to have people dedicated to dealing with these compliance and privacy issues — lawyers, policy experts, etc. Google didn’t even have a product manager or full-time engineer responsible for Reader when it was killed, so the company didn’t want to add in the additional infrastructure and staff, the sources said.

But at the same time, Google Reader was too deeply integrated into Google Apps to spin it off and sell it, like the company did last year with its SketchUp 3-D modeling software.

It’s not surprising Google wants to respect your privacy. It’s not only good PR to be able to say they’ve got a lawyer watching out for consumers, but also it helps cut down on the millions of dollars in lawsuit losses the company racks up when it gets caught.

Also, apparently 100 million people would have to use Reader before it was worth keeping, so, really, if you want to save it, start your engines.

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