Computer Help and Support

Chinese owned companies might be fine. Just not for me. And if you're on a Chinese government hit list, not for you. I'd tell you what I think of China, but I'd probably get tombstoned.

Is any of these operations worse than what Google, Facebook, or Amazon does on a regular day?

Let's see ... Google? I use Duck Duck Go for searching. Kinda hate the rest of their ecosystem. Youtube spreads almost as much mis-info as real. Facebook? I closed my account years ago. Amazon? Pure evil, closed my account years ago as well.

Fwiw, every so often I go online to buy something and the "nearest store" is in NJ or Indiana. How'd it figure thaf?

Well there's Geolocation. There are multiple services that can take your internet address and return a latitude/longitude. They're sometimes very accurate, sometimes no-so-much. Usually they get it to within a few miles. And if you've got a mobile device that has enabled location sharing, it's often accurate within a few meters. They'll use WiFi and cell phone signals to get closer. But I've also seen really bad implementations where fails (and doesn't notice) and places you out in the middle of nowhere. E.g. Null Island : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_Island