Most companies also have a professional and ethical obligation to protect the privacy of their users. With the advent of AI and LLM, it will be interesting to see how the field of ethics evolve in the coming years.
Well, except companies don't tend worry about protecting the privacy of their users from themselves. That was pretty much my point.
Regardless, at least in the tech space, companies don't actually seem to take that professional and ethical obligation very seriously. Just look at how common it is for tech companies to sell their user's data or allow targeted ad companies in.
There's probably some crossover at which respecting the privacy of the customer goes from being a positive differentiator in maintaining customer relationships to being an inhibitor to an additional non-trivial revenue stream.
They only ever see numbers and a “fine” for instance is just a “cost.”