For context, I think this was reposted from my comment on an earlier discussion on Google continuing to blur the line between ads and results: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22108540
Not sure who to trust or to trust anyone at all. All of these companies are run based on investor expectations and rarely by ethos. One bad quarter and an influx of changes that blur the line betweek ethical and criminal.
Whatever they are doing, the web is becoming more close doors. Get ready to pay for everything including access to websites.
Is that necessarily a bad thing? For centuries we've had to pay to access content and products. Many people, if not most, are starting to not want to trade their data for these; thus we go back to the original business model of trading them for money.