SpringHeeledJack,
What you are saying nothing new my dear !
All those "social media" and "free service" companies that provide all manner of services for free (e.g. Google, Twitter, FarceBook, LinkedIn) .... all have to make money somehow to pay for all those coders and all those servers ... that somehow is advertising .... and in order to tempt advertisers they need to be able to provide "highly targeted advertising opportunities" .... which of course, in other words, means scalping as much personal information off their users as they are willing to encroach into that legal grey area.....
There's no such thing as a free lunch as they say.... or free email, or free social media....