In other words… it’s free. Google search is free.

All of this “… then you are the product” stuff is totally meaningless legally and economically.

Wikipedia is free, Google search is not. You are paying for Google Search. People need to realize their privacy has value, a lot of value actually, otherwise Google Search and every other privacy invasive platform would cost money.

>> People need to realize their privacy has value, a lot of value actually,

I mean… maybe? (How much is your data worth to google in dollars? Probably not that much.) But I think consumers understand how google makes their money. If your argument in court is “consumers are misunderstanding in dollar terms how much this is harming them,” then you are going to lose.

If it's truly the case that you're paying for Google Search, that would be an even bigger incentive for consumers to leave to a different search engine (in essence, they would be paid to switch).