I would find it a bit hard to argue that the nature of free software has anything to do with this. Why couldn't all of this surveillance and the selling of user

I would find it a bit hard to argue that the nature of free software has anything to do with this. Why couldn't all of this surveillance and the selling of user data have been based on proprietary software? You could maybe say it would be too expensive but really.... I am sure that if you want a billion licenses of something you could get a volume discount or otherwise write the necessary proprietary software yourself or buy from the least expensive party and so on.... Have we forgotten the economic principle that in an efficient market the price of a good approaches the marginal cost of producing one more instance of that good. The proprietary market may be a bit less efficient but as long as there are multiple parties who can offer the good the principle should work to a certain extent.