[alasdair_]

>Honest question. I'm unsure what the danger is in letting these companies acquire data on us. We get a lot of benefit from using their products for free. Why should I care about giving my data to them as a cost of admission?

Trivial example: Let's say sometime in the future you plan on running for political office, or you become a journalist writing a story on someone powerful or otherwise become someone who powerful people would like to discredit. Having a log of everything you've ever done online would be very useful in causing you a whole bunch of problems.