I don't think it's crystal clear how much Google makes from targeted vs honest classic "contextual" ads, though they're certainly plowing ahead with the former.

I'm dearly hoping this targeted stuff gets enough backlash / blockage that adtech companies give up on it, or that DuckDuckGo and other more privacy-respecting companies end up winning in the end.

So if there wasn't ads on Google, Apple would totally still be earning billions on this deal? It's fairly obvious where the cash flows from.

The advertising is Google’s business model - not Apple’s.

Google could make its money a different way.

It’s true that if they did so they might not be a monopolist.

Who knows what the bidding for the default search spot would look like in that case, but it is their choice.

Just because you buy something from someone outside your company does not mean you're not benefiting from their business model. Companies don't operate in a vacuum.

To put an extreme example, just because Apple pays Foxconn does not mean they don't benefit from what's effectively slave labour. They're not removed from the effects of their transaction. The principal works in reverse too.

Apple knows exactly where their money is coming from and is complicit. They don't care, because Google has the best user experience, and their users that do care are power users that can opt-out. As much as Apple cares about privacy, nothing matches Google in search quality.

Steve Jobs once said in an interview with Wired:

> When you're young, you look at television and think, there's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want.

Sadly, I think that quote applies a lot to Google as well. I think a lot of people, and at least anecdotally almost everyone I talk to, just don't/doesn't care about (or maybe understand the threat of) the collection that is happening. In the case of Google, they just want to find stuff on the internet without trying multiple times or adding additional keywords to their search.

Apple didn’t design Google’s business model.

They chose to associate themselves with it.

Google Search itself may have a high marketshare, but that doesn't stop you from using Bing or DuckDuckGo does it?

It stops Apple from putting another search engine first if they want to deliver the best results by default.

Apple’s business model is about providing the best experience to their users.

Is the difference the use of unique identifiable info?