The reasons these are not the least bit comparable are
a) Economies of scale - breaking into houses happens one at a time. Breaking into unsecured computer systems often lets you affect millions of people at once.
b) Jurisdiction - if a thief breaks into your house, he's local, and your cops can find and prosecute him. With computers, this is almost never true.
c) Personal Choice - You can choose whether or not to use an alarm in your home. When you use somebody's service, you have no choice over whether they use a level of security you agree with.
d) Personal Impact - When you choose to use an alarm in your home or not, that is a decision that affects -you-. When a service chooses to be insecure or not, that is a decision that affects -their customers-.
In short, they are nowhere near equivalent. If you want to make decisions for yourself on convenience vs security, that's cool, but don't equate that to a company making decisions on behalf of their customers.
I agree they are different. Not having a physical security system may lead to violence against your family. Far more serious than almost any plain text password.
You got a lot of time at work to right 4 points as to why you think my point is wrong ;)
a) Economies of scale - breaking into houses happens one at a time. Breaking into unsecured computer systems often lets you affect millions of people at once.
b) Jurisdiction - if a thief breaks into your house, he's local, and your cops can find and prosecute him. With computers, this is almost never true.
c) Personal Choice - You can choose whether or not to use an alarm in your home. When you use somebody's service, you have no choice over whether they use a level of security you agree with.
d) Personal Impact - When you choose to use an alarm in your home or not, that is a decision that affects -you-. When a service chooses to be insecure or not, that is a decision that affects -their customers-.
In short, they are nowhere near equivalent. If you want to make decisions for yourself on convenience vs security, that's cool, but don't equate that to a company making decisions on behalf of their customers.