Google giving away app buyer data without their knowledge

Kelly Stewart on the fact that Google is actively giving away user information (name, email address, home address) of users who buy anything in the Google Play store and without their knowledge:

Being open is one thing but to be actively passing along your users name, address and email through to developers without advising the customer of this is bordering on reckless. Do no evil? How about you start by not handing over users personal information without explicit permission every time it's disclosed. Fuck open give me secure and considerate any day.

How can anyone at Google think that this is even remotely ok, or in the best interest of the user — I'm not even using the word 'customer' here, because the average user is not Google's customer.

People keep complaining about Apple's ecosystem being a golden cage, and locking in users, but it's also safe compared to similar offerings in the industry, and to be honest this golden cage must be huge, because I have not yet hit any kind of Apple-erected wall.

Alex Hoffmann @mangochutney