> which tricks people into buying more expensive and/or lower quality products > why else would the company need to pay to show up at the top of the search res

> which tricks people into buying more expensive and/or lower quality products > why else would the company need to pay to show up at the top of the search results? I dare say you do not understand how search results have worked for the past two decades. > then it follows that companies are trading information about me behind my back That is not how it works.