We can't know what the Web would look like without spying, data-moated giants wandering the landscape, making everything "free". The thing about a "free" spying service is that it competes with paid services and with actually-free ones. There's a reason open protocols have stagnated over the last couple decades—it's less rewarding to work on and promote a free, open social network based Email + a hypercharged, dynamic, living and evolving RSS (or whatever, maybe Mastadon, who knows) when the competition is Facebook and Twitter, and they're both "free" and the teams you're competing with are funded at eight, nine, or even ten figures.