7) As a privacy advocate, I like that *I* have control over who sees my content, who has my data and most of all, I absolutely treasure the fact that I am a person and not an ad-generation module to be data-mined and then marketed to, both from the companies that do the mining and the companies that buy my online persona to do the same.
If I am interested in being advertised to, then I will choose who does the advertising to me, what the advertising vehicle is and in what amounts I will allow.
@privacymatters This often comes up at my work where, to the amusement of my coworkers and despite being a #programmer, I don't use Chrome or Google search. Instead, it's #firefox & #duckduckgo. Heck, I even trust #microsoft more than Google or Facebook.
Unless I absolutely have to, I avoid using services that contribute in one way or another to the pockets of monolithic mammoth-sized advertising companies who want to shape the internet to suit themselves best.
@privacymatters Haven't checked out this StartPage you speak of. Looking into it.
@ashkumar Uses VPNs and proxies to hide your searches and doesn't track you.
@ashkumar Same here....Linux, DDG or StartPage and always Firefox. I now use only open source. Never felt freer or more in control!