My guess would be your Windows ID. Did you use the same Microsoft account when setting up the new laptop as your old one? I know Brave should eliminate that but from what I’ve heard it just doesn’t. It’s all lies. You mentioned using Edge, and I am thinking that Microsoft and Google are both so heavily intertwined at this point that they are basically the same data cesspool.

Of course that is assuming it was a PC and not an Apple or Linux based device (again, you mentioned Edge). Other options would be a Samsung, HP, Acer, Google, or other manufacturer accounts. Google for sure. If you signed into Google anywhere else on that thing with your ID I would just assume your data was being beamed straight into every computer watching for it in existence.

Ten swallows of water without taking a breath, as fast as you can.

I am a Christian and I don’t believe that. I could go on at length about how the Bible doesn’t support that idea.

Ironically, I have read that there was a study that found that the most gullible kids in elementary school grow up to be republican. I’m not kidding.

There is a lot to be said about economics and capitalism. I am in no way excusing the greed based nonsense we have rampantly running us all into the ground. But I do think that these actions will eventually burn themselves out. Take AI replacing workers. If that happens, there won’t be enough customers to buy AI products. So they will mostly go out of business and become a taboo. Instead there will likely be a balance.

The same is true of all the stuff you are mentioning. I think we are reaching a tipping point where these bad business practices and bad financial government practices are all coming to a head. Our economies are based so much on credit, and we are running out of credit to borrow worldwide. And, these corporate corruptions of government free democracy are all kind of back firing. I think in the next four years there will be an uprising of the population, much like what happened after the Hoover presidency, and I think that will result in some major law changes for the better. Not perfect, but better. I also think that we will see a LOT of these high profile compani s get broken up and go bankrupt. Take the insurance industry. It has become so toxic that they are getting close to being not worth it. They don’t pay out as much as they cost for most of us. So I think we will see alternatives start to pop up.

But then again, maybe I am just sticking my head in the sand because it feels safer to be ignorant.