Pretending they're being tracked and that people are making money from it makes them feel important, more like. You aren't actually that valuable.

It isn't actually a secret:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/04/smile-you...

You can tell this is an academic fight because it contains the phrase "disproportionately harm marginalised groups", which is the San Francisco version of pounding the table when they don't have an actual argument.

More importantly it doesn't mention making money off it.