Will third-party plugins survive the tech backlash?

Tech companies are taking more and more heat over other people's software. An alarming story in The Wall Street Journal this week dove into the world of Gmail plugins, many of which have the power to scan through users' entire inboxes. Some of that scanning is automated, but in other cases developers have combed through emails by hand, raising obvious privacy issues.

It was an ugly story for Google, not just for its immediate impact but for the difficult assumptions underneath. For decades, platforms have trusted users to make their own decisions about what programs to install and accept the consequences if they choose to install something scammy. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, that trust is starting to look irresponsible....

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