A financial asset is a series of cashflows. Your existence is a series of cashflows. Therefore, you are a financial asset. Advertisers, marketers, influencers, social media companies, big data, ai etc. are all in the business of predicting and directing those cashflows. It's very simple, that's where the money is. The monetization of everythimg is not a conspiracy theory, it's how the economy works.

Maybe it is a conspiracy theory,buyt it does feel plausible and I think that merits some concern that it could head in this direction if we keep allowing companies to leech into our lives. We already have ridiculous situations like the Disney+ lawsuit thing. Who know what hasn't surfaced yet?

internet has ads?

Your internet privacy affects a lot more than pricing. Someone can somehow find your information online, whether they buy it from an information broker or from some of the many giant hacks. Then they can use that information to track you down and hurt you. Also, most people aren't looking at price comparison sites.

Worked with both marketing and tech dudes many years ago, and two things I learned were (1) marketing guys overestimate new/fad tools so badly and (2) they (in conjunction with management) can be mercylessly demanding over TI guys.