Since the 90’s there had been a trend towards using administrative data (e.g. POS data, tax records, customs data) over survey data for measuring things like th

Since the 90’s there had been a trend towards using administrative data (e.g. POS data, tax records, customs data) over survey data for measuring things like the CPI, GDP and production statistics because it’s far cheaper, much more comprehensive, and sometimes more accurate. It’s not all used for advertising and mass surveillance.