That reads the exactly the same. Who are you (rhetorically, not 'you' :-)) to decide that I shouldn't be doing something? It's authoritarian and creepy.

Eric's misstep is precisely that addendum. If he said something to the effect that "If you have something you don't want anyone to know, don't put it on the internet". OK, fine -- that's reasonable. The paternalistic addition of an implied judgment on someone's behavior is unneeded.

I think it comes from being a top-level employee at company or any nominal leadership position. You get used to speaking with authority in one context -- and sometimes you think you can speak with authority in a larger context -- and you really can't.

Since when was linking an action with its consequence 'deciding that I shouldn't be doing something' or 'authoritarian and creepy'?

Patient: "It hurts when I do this!" Doctor: "Then don't do that."

You can still do it, just don't act surprised when it hurts. You can't have it both ways.

Because there is no action -> consequence chain in that phrase. All you have to do to see this is make the private information involuntary -- not the result of an action. The canonical case is not some horrible thing you might have done that you want to keep private. The typical case is something out of your control that you don't want everyone to know.

My argument is not that the subsequent phrase about putting things on the internet is false. It's not. That has a consequence. My argument is that the quote includes two basically unrelated parts and the statement about putting things in reach of google is only one part of it.

When people say the first phrase was taken out of context, I know they apologizing for google, whether they realize it or not -- because it wasn't taken out of context. It's obviously how Eric really feels -- and I think it shows how incredibly dangerous it is to trust people who have no obligation to you with your information.

I don't understand what the alternative is. If you insist on doing something you don't want people to know about, and you refuse to learn to cover it up,... then what!?

I wrote something up above, but the gist is -- you don't have to do anything to have something you want to hide.