Anyone on HN understands the implications of this. But does your average user? I doubt it. They just know they can install a little box and get paid. Digital privacy means nothing to far too many people
I don't think so. For instance, people I spoke with on reddit who installed the FB app thought that due to SSL, all their communications would be encrypted, and FB would only see who they were talking to, not what. Of course, the entire point of the root cert is to break SSL.
What? How can you make that argument? The average person has absolutely no clue of the various ways websites are tracking them already, let alone the potential amount of data Google would be getting by aggregating all this through their router.