YOU HAVE NO PRIVACY ONLINE

Besides the corporate snooping of your data, there's also state snooping.
One of the criticisms against CISPA and it's friends, was that it wouldn't be feasible to collect the amount of data that was required by the law... however, the CIA and friends are already collecting all of this data themselves, and storing it in case they ever need it.
There's occasionally some legal challenges to the extent that the state can spy on it's own citizens, but there's a huge loophole for many of us. The USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand maintain a shared intelligence network - shared data and shared infrastructure. If it's illegal for a US agency to use this infrastructure domestically, they can just allow an Australian to operate it, and then look at the resulting data. A friendly foreign 'spy' isn't ever going to be 'caught', let alone charged with espionage.

I guess Google doesn't like me. I've had a few apps on their store and they've never sent me details of the people that downloaded them.

You gatta be in the special club=-) (actually, i have no idea, as i've never made an app for their market place)

I also dislike Google Play's recent policy on forcing Google+ for leaving a review, as a user and a developer (I wrote about it here).

Whilst MS are obviously making their own angle on this for Windows Phone, this information about Google Play has received attention in the press recently, e.g., http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130213/09394921962/google-play-flaw-gives-app-developers-purchasers-information.shtml .

About the page looking amateurish - well, it does, because the coloured lettering looks like the sort of "each letter in a different colour" that you do when you're in primary school. But then hang on - that's taken from Google!

YOU HAVE NO PRIVACY ONLINE.

...

In many countries, including the United States, when something is online and stored on a server the end user has no "reasonable expectation of privacy". Even if the company has a privacy policy, even if the company says they don't share their data with anyone, YOU HAVE NO REASONABLE EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY.

I would have thought that passing on information without asking would be in breach of UK or European data protection laws?

But the whole scroogled campaign really does seem kinda amateurish I think is a good word as mentioned further up. It kinda strikes me as a politician getting up there and saying what a liar the other guy is... Well yeah, we all know he is, but you are too, so what's your point?

But you've just argued away the need for all advertising. Of course as with any advert, people will take it with a pinch of salt, but it conveys information and makes an argument about one product versus the other, just like any other.

Does Windows Phone do this too? If not, your "but you are too" isn't true. If they do, it's false advertising. MS may not have a great history, but the point is that there are still some people who think that other companies like Google can do no wrong. If the conclusion such people reach is "They're as bad as each other", that's better for MS than "It's only MS who are evil".

Next thing you know companies are going to start wanting shipping information when they need to send me a package.. my god.

It's about needing to know - obviously they need to know the shipping address when they want to ship something, but the thing about a mobile application is, there isn't any shipping address. Also, it's not that Google are made aware of this information, but that they pass the information on, and apparently do so without telling.

No one has ever developed and app or piece of software for any of the MS operating systems with the intent to steal information.. right?

I'm not sure how that's relevant, the issue is the online application sites for Windows Phone and Android.

All joking aside, sharing is perfectly viable for online app stores (in my opinion). It promotes sturdy structure and is incredibly helpful, both as a developer and as a consumer. The problem is people not learning what is okay to share, and what they should simply keep private/offline. If you don't feel comfortable with it, maybe you shouldn't type your name/phone number/password/etc. into that little box.

Does anyone know where they source the information from?

I guess Google doesn't like me. I've had a few apps on their store and they've never sent me details of the people that downloaded them.

Were they paid applications?

If you are not paying for a product, you are the product.