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Comment by eklovlfjkeos | Hacker News Reader

You said it yourself: "Firefox is released by a company that has no interest in collecting any personal usage information."

Once everything online is run by Google - including your browser, your search engine, your email, your documents, your cell phone info, etc. - Google's power becomes too big.

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Please explain in detail what bad things will come of Google knowing that I searched for "bioethanol" a lot yesterday.

That search alone is probably nothing to worry about. However, over time they will know almost everything about you and you, on the other hand, will know almost nothing about them. I am not sure how that makes you feel, but some people do not prefer to be in that situation.

Again, please explain in detail what bad things happen to me because they know a lot about me. Are they going to blackmail me and threaten to tell my family about my furry fetish? Are you worried about a leak?

There is a strong market motivation for them not to abuse the data they have. If you think otherwise, please explain. I'm genuinely interested because I often here people being worried about this issue but I've not seen many explain why.

You don't have to wait for the worst to happen. They don't have to blackmail and/or threaten you. They don't even have to abuse the data. What they have already gives them informational asymmetry over you and other users in aggregate - and that's what matters to them. By having access to your search history, documents, emails, spreadsheets, pictures, text messages, blogs, videos, your web page analytics, visitors, purchases, location, friends etc etc they're always guaranteed to be one step ahead of you. That ensures predicting with satisfiable accuracy, say, what you'll buy next, what you'll visit next, where you'd click next, where you'd go next, or, in general what you'll do next. This gives them a clear advantage in terms of controlling a good part of your online life and in turn a good part of your real life. If you feel that's something you can live with, that's fine. Older people recommend not putting all the eggs in one basket (even Google apparently listens to them by diversifying immensely). I am sorry if this may sounds a bit unrealistic/gloomy to you but there's never been an entity in the history of the world that has not abused the power that was given to them.

What you say is completely true. I say they will use that information to serve me ads and content that might be of interest to me. You say they will use it to control me? Explain this further, as I don't understand it.

Are we at a wall where, on my side I see advertising as some times beneficial (and some times not), and on your side you see advertising as a method of control through mind manipulation? Or are you talking about control through some other methods? Please explain more, it's intriguing to me.

If you really think about it that's what advertising is, isn't it? Introducing the right stimulus at the right time at the right place to hopefully make you act when you otherwise wouldn't. But it's not just about advertising....having someone or some entity - with much better analytical capabilities than you yourself - posses all this fine grained knowledge about you and you knowing nothing about them and having no control over their actions (in terms of what they can do with your information) it's just asking for trouble. I think we're at a wall here so let's agree to disagree - at least this way we're both happy...

And how does Mozilla make the vast majority of their revenue? Google partnership. Lulz.

"Are you worried about a leak?"

Nobody can't argue it can't happen, why take a risk of having our entire search history in one place.

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