OT Re: Privacy issues: Thank you for that.
Having search engines decide what I think is important or should know is annoying. It can get so focussed that I'd learn there's a fire in my backyard, but not about one twenty miles or a continent away.
Given that I follow various diseases associated with biotech stocks, the pop-up or banner ads assume I have every disease I've ever searched for information on the web, or that I really, really want to know about the next penny stock.
Google is bad in this aspect too, much as I rely on them. They track what you search for or what gets typed on a blog to determine what ad is most appropriate.
There's a message board (not stock, not biotech) I sometimes read where Google ads are so far off the mark it comes across as funny.
Running with blinders on may help in a horse race, but not all the time.