Someone does something good and provides you with a free product... and you want to question it..
Google is corporate, there is no conspiracy to it. They would be stupid not to collect and sell demographic / marketing stats.

Someone does something good and provides you with a free product... and you want to question it..
I question every free closed source product, I bet you do too.

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

I especially like to question free AV / Ad-Spy software... It's sad how much info they send home. (pretty much always the ones advertised in popups) Google isn't an exception just because they have a kickass search engine.

You'll always end up working with an expensive commercialized version of software, rather than a free alternative with as much funtionality
I don't really see how this relates to anything... Wouldn't a radical conspiracy theorist move to an open source solution? Sounds more like a personal beef, and it's late so whatever...

Stop looking for a conspiracy where there's none to be found!
Is everything I mentioned not possible? Hardly a conspiracy... More like a typical buisness model.

Google has every right to do whatever they want with the information you provide them. I'm not arguing that it's unethical, or illegal, I'm simply saying it's important to know the facts, and ask the right questions.