> Google [...] sells downstream clients access to [your data]
This is categorically false. I don't know what you're trying to allege here, but it's not that.
These platforms do give sufficient feature selection to advertisers such that they can get near individual targeting. I've seen some stories like this on HN, but having trouble finding them now, something about foreign influence of US political representatives iirc.
...how do you believe Google ad targeting works?
Not by selling downstream clients access to my browsing data. Like, seriously: who do I call at Google and how much do I have to pay to get your browsing data? They don't sell that.
It's fair to allege all kinds of externalities and privacy impacts and such around the advertiser-driven content economy. And HN is 100% here for that.
But this is stepping across the line into a simple lie. They don't sell data.
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