[hackinthebochs]

That's the thing, I highly doubt the majority of users are even aware of how much information Google has on its users. Even I as a knowledgeable programmer would probably be surprised at the depth of profiling they have done. And this isn't even considering any sort of machine learning analysis of the data that to extrapolate information not explicitly given. So no, "willingly allow them" is not an accurate description of the relationship.

[dmix]

There's chrome plugins to opt out of ad-tracking and you can delete your search history.

Everything is optional. You don't have to be signed in or using cookies to search using Google.

That's how I like my information privacy. My only issue is the lack of encryption in gmail (and email in general).

Personal privacy is the users responsibility. There's a technology knowledge gap regardless if the user is using google or any other site. That isn't one websites responsibility.

[grumps]

I'm not really agreeing with their practice nor do I disagree with what you're saying.

It's kind of a classic trojan horse. We will provide you with this awesome service, and get nothing in return. Nothing in life is truly free, it always come with a different motive. People can't turn down anything that's free. Especially people in the US Of course people should have a right to know what depths your analyzing them, but particularly in the US people don't seem to care as long as they don't have to pay for it.