Regarding the rms references: Don't get me wrong, rms advocates a somewhat extreme end of personal privacy uses that I don't honestly expect normal people to embrace, but he's never actually been WRONG about what these companies do or how they go about doing them.  The choice is on the end user to make an informed choice what compromises are acceptable to them.  Even rms makes a few himself in his daily life, if you read what he writes (such as using a few loyalty program cards he could get anonymously - they no doubt still are used to create a shadow profile)