The most egregious aspect is that these companies arguably shouldn't even have the ability to make such large purchases. They don't pay their taxes (using looph

The most egregious aspect is that these companies arguably shouldn't even have the ability to make such large purchases. They don't pay their taxes (using loopholes to appear completely unprofitable while an entity that is all-but-legally indistinct amasses a massive warchest is tantamount to tax avoidance, period) and they shortchange users on the value of their data (delivering software worth a fraction of the value of the data collected during its use). What results is an enormous economic distortion that has numerous negative effects, of which the issue described above is just one.