That was my reaction - all those functions are a huge opportunity to provide a lot of information about you and your personal life to Google.
Although I think it's strange that there are some people who know this and have no problems with it, what's really awful is the number of people who have no idea and would never approve all the information about them that gets sent to Google.
This argument has always confused me, because it makes it seem like providing information for Google to use to better target services at you is somehow an invasion of privacy that you think you have.
Credit card companies have known what you buy, when you buy it, where you live, and so on for over 50 years. The phone company has known who you call, when you call them, and (if the government wants) what you say for longer than that. Apple knows the sorts of things Google knows, as do many, many other large (and small) companies. Ever set up UPS so it'll let you know of deliveries to your address? Part of "proving" who you are involves answering multiple choice questions - one of mine involved the address an apartment I lived in for a month in 1989 (and UPS knew the right answer).
Privacy is dead. You can eke out a reasonably private online presence with Tor and the like, but unless you're off-grid in a cabin in Montana, what you do is known.
All Google is doing is making what they already know about me more useful to me. And I like that. I like flicking up on the screen before I head out in the morning and seeing the commute time and the weather. I like seeing all my package shipping and delivery info there. I like seeing flight info, movie times, and so on.
I haven't lost a bit of privacy, because I never really had that privacy in the first place. I'm just getting use of their big data, and it helps me. Same with Amazon's recommendations. Same with Netflix, etc.
You can't stop the information from going somewhere*. It might as well go to somewhere that gives you something in return.
* In general. Yes, you can stop provider X from getting information Y, but general information about you and what you do is out there, always. If you're not sure how much, pick some random person and spend $50 or so on a report on them, and you'll be amazed at what you can find out. Random people could spend the same $50 and find the same things out about you, even if you don't use Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, credit cards, and so on.