[tomnipotent]

> be shipped around internally

How is that a problem? The issue at hand is the irresponsible handling of data (especially wrt 3rd parties), not the general handling of 1st-party data competently within an internal network.

So yes, it's a LOT better.

[underwater]

In what way? If Google uses your search history to target you with ads is that somehow better than them leaking the data and a third party service targetting you the same way? The end result is the same.

[mda]

How are they same? Single source you trust versus multiple unknown parties having your data.

[JohnFen]

> Single source you trust

Assuming that the single source is trustworthy, sure. But we're talking about the likes of Facebook and Google here.

The two use cases for data aren't identical, and actually shipping the raw data out is worse. But, in my opinion, the two things are similar and the shipping out of data is not that much worse.

[underwater]

Take trust out of the equation. It's one entity that is optimised to extract money from you and your data, vs many companies doing the same.