I know it feels right to say that. But really, do you think the majority of people who switched from Firefox to Chrome did it because FF did not address their privacy concerns? Seems ridiculous. However bad FF is, Chrome is much worse.

It seems far more likely that the remaining 3% are the few people who care, and therefore, "pulling this shit" did not cause the current market share.

Which means the people who care about privacy are their CORE market. You do not offend your core market. I’m not a business expert but c’mon.

I’m willing to put up with slowness and incompatability when I feel like firefox is on my side. Now? I’m going back to Safari.

As if… Firefox’s popularity and then decline stems from consumer perceptions of functionality and general availability (i.e. marketing)