Why? It was probably pressure from the investors that drove them to do it. You can't say to someone "get this done no matter the cost" and then expect to be held blameless when they do something shady.

It's kind of like a mob boss who says to his lieutenant, "Boy, it sure would be helpful to us if that grocery store burned down". How else were they supposed to monetize their tech? They did exactly what everyone else does and found a way to use it for advertising.

You overestimate how much people care outside of the tech community (which is not the same as the academic computing community).