Mmm…seems like we’re not the only ones getting worried about the dominance of the large online services and their control over our data. Web icon Dave Winer yesterday echoed our sentiments that the trend towards monetizing and dominating chunks of the web [direct link down, Google cache version] is leaving us all vulnerable to a potentially nasty future. 

The moral of the story of the Facebook patent and all the recent news from Apple and Google: Tech companies are no better or worse than big companies in other industries. They are all about keeping the stock price high, growing at the expense of their competitors, and the role of users is the same as customers in other industries, you’re a source of revenue.

The good news is the fact that people are starting to recognise the extent of this dangerous shift, and even if the majority of users are happy to surrender their lives to these Internet behemoths, it looks as though a time may come when the call for some sort of oversight may be acted upon. Profit motives clearly tend to pollute pure communication channels if left untended. Just look at our current mainstream media.

And when you have a choice between using the product of a small company or a large one, give the small one a chance. This helps protect choice and diversity. And if someone creates something new, and they are not working for a big company, celebrate that, make them famous, make sure everyone knows. The myth is that the only new stuff comes from big companies. That’s never been true.

Worth reading.