> And what info are they giving to Google?
Their search history for school projects which is collected and sorted by an algorithm?
They give all the same usage information and probably more than Windows 10 sends to Microsoft. If you don't thing Google is collecting insane amounts of data from Chromebooks, you're incredibly naive.
And if you are signed into Google (from any browser) they collect your information. Or if you use Gmail.
It's what they use for many of their services. I guess the question I'm asking is more philosophical - if you 'opt in' to the Google ecosystem, why is this a bad thing?
Up to now, there's been no indication Google abuses your data (unless you consider algos to show you ads as 'abuse'), or that it ever leaves Google's servers, or is ever even human-readable...
> if you 'opt in' to the Google ecosystem, why is this a bad thing?
In the same way, you 'opt in' to the Microsoft ecosystem by using Windows. The problem is everyone seems to give Google a free pass because of free stuff. What's crazy to me is that whenever Google expands the amount of information they collect, they're praised for being so innovate. I mean, one of the "best" new features of the next version of Android literally walks the entire view hierarchy on your phone and sends it all too Google's servers, but god forbid Microsoft collects some usage information and crash reports.
They give all the same usage information and probably more than Windows 10 sends to Microsoft. If you don't thing Google is collecting insane amounts of data from Chromebooks, you're incredibly naive.