(1) For those who take Google up on this deal, is this an economically rational decision? On the one hand, it sure looks like one: a participating user decides that he or she values a $5 Amazon gift card (or whatever the payment is) more than data privacy and enters into an economic transaction reflecting this valuation. Alternatively, it's possible that a person could think Google already has such broad access to our information that the marginal amount of privacy lost by downloading the extension or installing the black box is inconsequential. In other words, a person may reason "as long as my privacy is being violated and I'm willing to go along for the ride, I should get what I can out of this relationship."