There are many other companies which collect the same amount or more data than Facebook does and they use it for the same purpose: targeted advertising. Putting the other issues Facebook had with Cambridge analytica or getting 50 million users' info hacked aside, I'm struggling to understand why articles like this from NYTimes are pointed just only to Zuckerberg and Facebook as in they are the only ones who provide targeted advertising platform. As I mentioned that's the whole multi-billion dollar industry that allows companies to do the targeted and programmable advertising and yes, it's pretty much the business model of the internet.

At this point, I feel like they are just abusing the situation and writing everything like Facebook did yet another more terrible thing.

> I'm struggling to understand why articles like this from NYTimes are pointed just only to Zuckerberg and Facebook as in they are the only ones who provide targeted advertising platform.

Facebook has a recognizable face that can make statements that can be critiqued, the ill-defined "many other companies" do not. Focusing on Facebook make the issue easier to understand, but the issues raised apply to all targeted advertising companies that try to justify themselves to consumers.

> Focusing on Facebook make the issue easier to understand, but the issues raised apply to all targeted advertising companies that try to justify themselves to consumers

Then they should also mention that in their articles. Because in the existing form, for a not techie people it sounds like _only_ Facebook has been doing this and that's not the case.

"Many other companies" includes Google, Twitter, Ad networks like Adroll etc. I don't think there is a need to list all of them in here :)