True. Heck, even ol' Slashdot is still kicking around and I think it was the first website discussion board I'd encountered (or maybe that was Fark? which is also kicking around still!)

"choices" when the Supreme Court stepped in and decided a winner

That's the writer's poor phrasing. The actual survey question was: "Which platform(s) are you developing your current project for? (Choose all that apply)" It's shown in the screenshot in the article.

Let's cut the crap: it's not that they "realized" nobody wants it -- it's that they've come to accept the blowback against their reputation has gotten too big to outweigh the potential pros of preinstalled bloatware supporting their strategy.

"You facilitated cause and effect! How dare you? I blame youuuuu and the rest of the librulz!!"

This sounds huge! This may be a dumb question, but: do extensions on mobile require any special security tools that don't already exist?

I'm guessing virtually every government in the world is surveilling and collecting data on as many people as they can. I don't think that's tinfoil at all but actually a part of the job of modern intelligence. The only (sorta) counterbalance citizens have is the concept of citizen's rights (including privacy), which may legally barely exist (if at all) in other countries.