It's not just tech making money The data companies collect is valuable because it can be used against you. It's not just so that companies can show you ads for things you might be interested in. Surveillance capitalism means that your health insurance rates can increase because big data shows that people in your zip code eat out more often. The data collected is used to create a secret "consumer credit score" which determines things like how long you wait on hold, what stores will tell you their return policy is (their policies for you are not their policies for everyone else) and can mean you're paying more for identical products at the same website than the person next door. If you want companies to make money there are plenty of ways for them to do that without handing over your personal information which will be used for years to secretly exploit and manipulate you in ways you'll never even be aware of.