No they don’t. They sell the ability to display ads to users in a targeted fashion. The user data is how they do that and is their moat. Their entire market advantage is they don’t sell the data, instead you have to continually let them decide who sees your ads to leverage that data.
Google goes to great lengths to make sure only they have this data.
EFF kind of disagrees with your sentiment, which IMO is providing Google with the benefit of the doubt:
Google monetizes what it observes about people in two major ways:
It uses data to build individual profiles with demographics and interests, then lets advertisers target groups of people based on those traits.
It shares data with advertisers directly and asks them to bid on individual ads.
The second method of monetization involves most of the behaviors that regular people might think of as “selling data.” Google is involved at nearly every level of the complex, automated process of third-party ad placement known as “real-time bidding,” or RTB.
No they don’t. They sell the ability to display ads to users in a targeted fashion. The user data is how they do that and is their moat. Their entire market advantage is they don’t sell the data, instead you have to continually let them decide who sees your ads to leverage that data.
Google goes to great lengths to make sure only they have this data.
EFF kind of disagrees with your sentiment, which IMO is providing Google with the benefit of the doubt:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/google-says-it-doesnt-sell-your-data-heres-how-company-shares-monetizes-and