They sell access to data (i.e., ads) - that is far more lucrative than selling the data itself. Only companies that are bad at tech just sell the data (credit card companies, retail, etc)
Cambridge Analytica was far more stupid - that was them just giving away data for free. Their old Facebook Apps APIs were wide open to collect whatever for free for anyone who would use your app (CA made those “do this fun quiz and invite your friends!” kind of FB games) and the APIs just said “we require you to delete this data when the user is done with the app” with no way to enforce it
I think Meta very much wants to sell data.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/facebook-to-pay-90-million-to-settle-data-privacy-lawsuit “Specifically, the plaintiffs’ alleged that Facebook used cookies and various plug-ins in order to track and save information about its users’ visits to third-party websites and then sold to advertisers.”
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/facebook-in-payment-spat-over-725-million-privacy-settlement “Consumers sued Meta in 2018 after it became public that the British research firm had gained access to the data of at least 87 million Facebook users without their permission in connection with its work for Trump’s campaign.”
They sell access to data (i.e., ads) - that is far more lucrative than selling the data itself. Only companies that are bad at tech just sell the data (credit card companies, retail, etc)
Cambridge Analytica was far more stupid - that was them just giving away data for free. Their old Facebook Apps APIs were wide open to collect whatever for free for anyone who would use your app (CA made those “do this fun quiz and invite your friends!” kind of FB games) and the APIs just said “we require you to delete this data when the user is done with the app” with no way to enforce it