Governments purchasing 3rd party collected data isn't illegal whereas the government obtaining the collected data themselves would be illegal.
When in the 21st century hasn't this been true?
The internet is a commodity you pay for from an ISP. They control your traffic and log it to whatever extent they desire. Site operators choose to allow or deny visitors based on arbitrary things; membership, adblock, browser choice, etc. If you don't provide enough value to the site operator (or alternatively, cost too much to host) then advertisement becomes inevitable. Even your browser was monetized and weaponized since Microsoft realized they could pack-in web clients. Now everyone is being abused by some corporate benefactor.
The online ad business is a reflection of how every first world government has let FAANG roll all over them and consequentially exploit their citizens. The only way we "reset" the ad industry is by bullwhipping Big Tech until they recognize your freedom as a computer owner.
You’ve just described most of the marketing folks I’ve worked with for the last decade.
On LinkedIn I follow a few of these people, people I know from working in e-commerce years ago. They have no glue about what's happening. They see the thing they've worked on for 15 years fall apart, but won't accept any of the blame. They blame Apple, the EU, anyone but themselves. They don't see any of the damage that they caused. The internet and it's users is something to extract value from, not something that holds any value on it's own in their minds.
It's time that the online ad business get a reset. Ads will still be important, but the way they are managed and implemented needs to be adjusted.