A market where people pay directly for the product is necessary but not sufficient for a market that contains privacy-conscious products. If nobody will pay fo

A market where people pay directly for the product is necessary but not sufficient for a market that contains privacy-conscious products. If nobody will pay for anything, you literally can't run a business in the market without resorting to some backhanded way of getting paid like selling out your users. If people will pay, it's possible to run such a business. This does not however guarantee that businesses won't misbehave. There's always the temptation to double-dip. Contrast Apple and Microsoft. Apple so far has at least somewhat resisted the temptation to double-dip and sell their users out to ads and spyware. Microsoft couldn't care less as evidenced by the ad and shovelware laden monstrosity that is Windows 11. There's no guarantee that Apple won't move further to the dark side, but since people pay directly for Apple products they at least can try to stay honest. (... and they've to some extent branded themselves as privacy conscious, so going to the dark side could harm their brand.) Consumer awareness, choice, and in some cases regulation are required to get the rest of the way there.