I paid for youtube premium for a few months under the reasoning that I hate those auto playing make money ads so much. Certainly paying for peace is worthwhile.

Youtube legitimately has some quality content. But I ended my subscription because fundamentally, streamlining the path to more Youtube usage is self-enabling devil’s work.

Point being: Im not convinced paying money to these companies is ultimately going to result in a healthier, more safe more private experience, no matter what they claim.

At best they will honor the contract of not tracking your moves through that app. They will use part of your money to buy the information about your moves from other sources, or track you with another app.

> The peace of mind knowing that my every move isn't tracked and being used to sell me stuff or engagement bait

Why would you trust Meta to keep its promises?

Even Apple is not to be trusted with that, see, e.g., https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34299433

per year, not per month