Life is too short to put up with such nonsense. There are better alternatives [1] available.
P.S.: When you uninstall Chrome on certain platforms, it’ll open your default browser and direct you to a feedback page. Be honest and tell them why, and that you wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
Please tell your particularly non technical friends and relatives to avoid Google like plague if they care about privacy. Show them how - give a link to Firefox, Privacy badger.
A relative of mine who paid $7/month for a VPN service because he cared about his privacy from ISP, but was using Google Chrome and Gmail for sensitive personal Email. Fewer people from the non-engineering world know/understand what we assume is common sense. When you get a chance please don't hesitate to tell people of better choices.
For anyone that has never had a conversation like this, you really have to be careful with this and pick your battles wisely. Some people are so non-technical, that they will not understand what you are explaining to them, or why you are even bothering them. You will be perceived as a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist. Some people will understand what you are explaining and might even understand your stance, but ultimately will still continue in their ways because it's so much easier and convenient.
What ever you do, don't be judgemental about their decision. You will only make them less interested. Start slowly. It can be overwhelming how fubar'd the web experience has become.
This is a very common reaction I've seen. People don't care as much about privacy as one would assume they might when given some information about it. It's like a case of extreme apathy triggered and nurtured by ignorance. Add to this the convenience factor of Gmail or similar platforms, it's a big task.
But I have seen that there are at least a few people who, over time, get the heeby-jeebies about privacy intrusions. That's a good result compared to not telling them about this over and over for a long time.
It is by far a "No bullshit" email service. They do one thing, and very well. It's simple, fast and reliable.
I disagree. Firefox uses the exact same URL filtering system [0] used by Chrome to block access to potentially harmful malware-ridden sites. Add some solid extensions like uBlock/uMatrix and Privacy Badger to that, you get a browser that's as secure, if not more, than Google's bloated browser.