> I sign up to Facebook, which costs them money (storage costs, network traffic, CPU, etc) and in exchange they make money off me by showing me ads How would y

> I sign up to Facebook, which costs them money (storage costs, network traffic, CPU, etc) and in exchange they make money off me by showing me ads How would you explain the fact that police forces, private investigators, credit bureaus, stalkers and intelligence agencies love Facebook if all the company is doing is "showing me ads"? My point is that you're leaving out the most valuable/terrifying thing that this company does: creating incredibly detailed profiles of nearly every person on the planet including their likes, dislikes, relationships, private thoughts and behavioral patterns. We may be powerless to change it because developers are easily bribed with FAANG salaries and people generally like their stock portfolios but let's at least be honest about it.