Well, it wasn't so much an argument as it was a muse. I'm not a marketing guru and again, I am expert at nothing.I do run several businesses, but word of mouth is my advertisement.

The purpose of an advertisement, say in a magazine or on a billboard, is to sell you goods or services. Those goods or services are '$Price A' which is cost to manufacture, taxes/applicable fees, plus overhead and profit. On the internet, yet another element is added and a very invasive element: Data Collection & Brokering. So, without even selling you goods or services, the company in question is making bonus bucks from collecting your data and using it/selling/trading it. So, on the internet, the company in question is double dipping IMHO. Once for enticing you to buy their goods or services, and the most nefarious IMHO, collecting your data via all manner of sneaky ways. So, it seems to me, whether or not they sell you a product or service, they're already making bank on a global scale, and not affording you due compensation for creating the data in the first place. Creating takes labor and labor is compensated with $$. If it means billions of dollars to the company in question, then it's worth a lot to little ol' me. Even if it were just clicking a mouse or typing on a keyboard, your data has high value, and they know it.

I call this data theft. It is the very same offense if I walked into the CEO's office of a fore mentioned corporation, and picked up a paper weight, stuck it in my pocket, and walked out the door. It's data theft. Now it may be the bowl talking so feel free to spool me right up if I have err'd in my thought process.