Comment by elihu

I think for a lot of tech products, it's more that the profit margins are tight and competition is fierce, such that spyware integration is needed to subsidize what would otherwise be a money-losing product. At which point the only remedy may be to impose regulations telling companies that no, you can't sell customer's private data without their permission -- and then the price of electronic goods should stabilize at a somewhat higher price but without the user-hostile features.