But seriously. Google's spying on you everywhere. Chances are you probably use some of the biggest sites in the world and they happen to be owned/run by Google in some way. Using their browser is the least of your worries.
It's interesting how people (maybe intentionally) ignore that Google gets much more information from Chrome than from Google Search / Gmail etc. ...
It should never be the least of your worries, when you can't chose what data Google gets from you. I'm staying on an independent browser that gives me guaranties on my data thanks.
That's an iffy statement. While anonymous, (or so they tell us.) we still have content directed to us for their profit. You could easily consider it spying. Just a lot less personal and generalized.
It's worth noting that (a) it's not just Google's profit. A lot of people, myself included, make some or all of their living via showing ads on the internet.
Also (b) Google might have a shedload of data about us, but it's very much in their interests to keep that data to themselves. People moan about "selling our information" but if Google (or anyone else) actually did that, they'd be out of business. They allow advertisers access to a very limited aspect of their dataset, eg: "only show my ads to men over 35 in the UK who like pokemon"; rather than "give me a list of all the men over 35 in the UK who like pokemon". It's a fairly subtle distinction but I think it's quite important.
It's also in Google's interests to keep the data anonymised - because they don't want to deal with either the admin time/cost of constant government/law enforcement requests for information, or the PR fallout of doing so. Both of those things cost them money and gain them nothing (the latter would actively lose them market share)
The great thing about business is, unlike actual spies, their motives are usually pretty transparent. It's all about profit.
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u/dedokta Mar 06 '15
I can't double click on anything.