(Obvious response: "there are legal reasons why we can't do that, it'd be viewed as anticompetitive". Obvious response to the obvious response: "stop being simultaneously an ad company and a browser vendor and it would no longer be anticompetitive".)

“From what?”

“From what we’re gonna do to you if you don’t pay us for protection.”

This feature compared to that status quo is worse for privacy.

I think this might be the first time I’ve seen something that promises enhanced privacy instead doing directly the opposite, outside of the realm of malware and scam apps.

Imagine if there was a “save space on your hard drive” checkbox that used more storage space when it was checked. That’s what this is.