The vast majority of the respondents also said that they'd switch to a new search engine if it didn't collect information on them. In 2017 DuckDuckGo commissioned a study that estimated 24% of Americans consider privacy a crucial consideration for their next device purchase. You may be thinking 'well I have nothing to hide.' Are you sure? As the company states in a recent blog post, have you considered what your entire search history looks like? Would you want that made public, inadvertently or otherwise? Your shopping history at Amazon, which may be partially informed by what Google knows about you? Do you want to have your opinions, political views and general view of the world shaped by the filter bubble? But at what point does convenience transform into creepy?ĭuckDuckGo headquarters, with a very interesting welcome mat. Yes, to some the convenience of the Google ecosystem is an acceptable trade-off. Yes, untangling ourselves from the overreach of Google can be a monumental task. It asks me for photos of locations and food, and asks me questions to fill in the gaps in its knowledge so that it can better advertise to others. Google Maps knows where I get my groceries, how long I'm there, and everywhere I walk, drive or fly in the entire world. YouTube knows I'm into product reviews, audio equipment and indie music. Google Photos knows the faces of my friends and loved ones and knows where we travel.

Google News understands that I'm predominantly interested in articles about Linux, AMD and Nvidia.

Some of us start off embracing the ecosystem enthusiastically, don't we? Google Home knows my voice and my routines. Then there's Google, the pioneer of surveillance capitalism, effectively monetizing all the possible data it can acquire about us.

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