Oh, that was not clear from the essay, and honestly might change my opinion a little. Is your position "targeted ads cause harmful privacy violations, but my work is exclusively devoted to reducing the privacy impact, so I don't believe my work is harmful"? If so I would encourage you to edit the essay, because that's not at all how it comes across right now, at least to readers who aren't familiar with your work. I had assumed turtledove was one of many projects you're involved with.

IMHO, that work is still actively harmful since it seeks to provide political cover for a fundementally harmful activity.

If privacy is not being violated, how is the activity fundamentally harmful?

See repeated explanations all over this thread.