[zaarn]

Okay, let's do it by having an analog.

You are given advice on how to safely cross a four-way intersection by two companies.

One is an insurance company specialised in people being run over by semi trucks at four way intersections.

The other is a contractor that designs, builds and maintains four way intersections for the government and private entities.

Of course, yes, the later could collude with the former to make extra money.

But it's also not their business model. They build intersections, people pay them to make those safe and reliable. People do not pay them to collude with shady insurance companies which try to kill people by semi truck.

People would actively not pay them if they did that.

Same with Cloudflare. If CF sold data to ad networks, a lot of websites would simply jump ship and use one of the other CDNs with free offerings. People pay CF a shitload of money for ensuring the connection is private and safe (notably banks, governments, etc.)

[craftyguy]

Your analogy is bad because it describes behavior which is illegal. If you want to make as much money as possible, you might avoid decisions like the one you present which will cost you more money when it is exposed.

[zaarn]

It's not a bad analogy because it's illegal, it's a good analogy because it leads to people understanding what is happening here by simplifying in something people encounter regularly and understand somewhat.

[freeopinion]

See recent behavior of Wells Fargo before you dismiss this. They have built the largest consumer bank on practices that were not legal. Even after some of those practices have been exposed they are #1. Millions of people with multiple semi-truck tire marks on their bodies still bank with them.

[craftyguy]

I'm not saying that every for-profit company will abide by the law, but that they may have an inclination to do so because penalties would reduce their profits. So the comparison you are trying to make is not quite the same since there's a condition where a for-profit company might still do something ethically wrong (but legal) to make money, but avoid illegal behavior that would also make money (but cost them more if caught). For a recent example of this: facebook.