People defend that business model all the time on HN, usually I’m the disguise of how regulating companies is evil, how smart people want freedom, or in the disguise of “I make a living from working at a big ad-tech company so it must be a force for good in the world”, or in the disguise of “you must be weak if you give in to advertising it doesn’t affect me”, but sometimes just plain “how will companies show you tasteful information about products and services you might be interested in?”.