That is if you choose to believe Google, which it sounds like you do. And that's perfectly natural because the alternative is too scary and infuriating to consider.
It's not much different than being mugged (it happened to me). The victim's first natural instinct is to believe that the perpetrator won't hurt them if they just hand over their wallet. It's easier that way, but people still get hurt.
Believing Google doesn't change the fact that you are the victim and that it may get much worse for you.
Don't politicians use this common excuse to take away people's privacy rights on the net? Julian Assange calls it one of the “Four Horsemen of the Infopocalypse” (terrorism, drugs and money laundering are the other three).
Direct access... FTP... you say chicken, I say fish. It's not that big of a deal. It seem like you're TRYING to make it a big deal, but it only serves to distract from the real issue.
What is a big deal is that my personal conversations and yours and your mother's are being recorded, read and stored to be used against us later. That is a big deal. Human rights. Civil liberties. Not living in constant fear. Those are the real issues.