Comment by johnnyanmac

>Ads are just the publicly acceptable justification companies will use for invading your privacy.

No, it's a primary means. Companies don't care about your data unless they can make money off of it. A few can utilize it directlty for their product (examples you highlight a few of), but for the majority it's a cost of doing business at best, and a waste of server space at worst

Otherwis, your data in bulk is only financially useful for ad companies researching ways to maximize their ROI. The kicker is that the government allows those for their own, separate reasons. But for companies you always need to follow the money.