That's pretty much how I've always seen it. Though I suspect a very large % of Google product users don't even give it a second thought that if they're getting

That's pretty much how I've always seen it. Though I suspect a very large % of Google product users don't even give it a second thought that if they're getting something for "free" they must be paying in some sort of hidden/indirect manner. I'm actually a fan of targeting advertising too - when it's done well it can genuinely be a useful sort of information that can assist in deciding what products to buy. What I don't get is why it's so often not very smart (e.g. getting tonnes of ads for a product that I literally just bought and couldn't even have received yet given shipping times).