For me it is not about "doubts." It's about choices.

I don't use Skype or MS email or many of the apps listed in Dmex's excellent post (there have been many excellent posts
in this thread,...

Hey wait a minute.. (never read the privacy statement and the service agreement before).. in part (you agree for them to collect):

"[Y]our first and last name, email address, postal address, phone...

Very good post. Good read and well stated.

Some good reading in this thread.

But sometimes it seems that a germ of concern in this subject is being exploited a bit by both sides, while in the middle somewhere is common sense. I'm hoping...

Yeah the "misusing the data" they collect is the far fetched concern. The "what if" on being hacked is still a slim possibility, but we've seen huge hacks in the recent past.

In particular I was...

Well... they (and others; Apple, Google etc) get a lot of money for keeping track of our habits. ;)

The rub is whether or not they know Joe's from Jane's habits etc, and whether or not they can...

Yep. May have solved my issues without having to do two more fresh installs.

FWIW similar issue here, but the third install made it all right. I just kept going, made no changes at all in my set up or hardware. I'm wondering if it has to do with updates fetched during the...

That case you mention is an example of what keeps my lack of trust from going full blown. Apple (and others gathering in support of them) seems to be holding the line.

But still.. I can't get...

I'm just wondering, going in, has anybody read here and around elsewhere about this data collection issue
and then changed their views about it?

I did when I found myself wary of the NSA's...