Sure, since they made most of their money from paid products, they had the advantage of telling consumers we won't collect your data, and it was a powerful attack on FB and Google's business models. It was a powerful differentiator, and it worked with people like me.

It's a case where a business motivations line up with their customers (like how FB and Google's motivations to collect data lined up with their customers motivations to get free stuff).

But if they're breaking that now, that's a huge problem.