I get for FREE from Google what I was paying Apple to do.
When a for-profit corporation is spending money to provide you with a service that you don't pay for, like Google, then you are not the customer, you are the product being sold. Google's business is to sell you to their
actual customers, which of course are the people who pay them. Google's motivation is to keep their
actual customers happy, who are third parties you've never heard of, never done business with, and who want to know every little detail about you as possible. As for the product (you and me), they only need to do enough to keep us around, just like a farmer needs to keep his pigs alive until he sells them to the butcher.
When a for-profit corporation is spending money to provide you with a service that you pay for, like Apple, then you are the customer. Apple's motivation is the same as Google's, to keep their
actual customers happy, but in this case the actual customer is you and me. Apple does work to keep third party interference at bay (
for example this) in order to keep us, their paying customer, happy.
Either model is fine as long as you understand what is happening. I don't think most people understand the incredible details and depths of the online profile that is being made about them, and how easy it is to determine who that profile is even though there are assurances that no personally identifiable information is included, and what types of misuse can occur with that information.
