Remember how when Google and others launch ultra-vague privacy policies, people are quick to defend them and say "No, you don't understand - Google/Facebook/Microsoft would
never do that worst case scenario you're thinking about right now. It's just phrased that way because lawyers wrote it!"
And 2-3 years later, that scenario turns out true, and they enable it silently, so not many people realize it. And they don't even have to change the privacy policy anymore, which would alert news sites, because they've already done that before.
The lawyers wrote the privacy policies that way because the companies intend to do other stuff with the data, or even that worst case scenario people think about, not just because "lawyers gonna lawyer". You don't think Google or Microsoft's general counsels know exactly what their CEOs/companies intends to do with that data 2-3 years down the road? Of course they do. They are usually part of all the long-term strategy planning.
So next time you see something like this, how about you stop giving these companies the "benefit of the doubt" (especially with their poor track record on this) and actually do assume the worst will happen, until they modify their privacy policies to specifically say what they're going to do or aren't going to do with your data.
And people still wonder why the EU could possibly want to investigate Google. Surely it's just American supremacy jealousy? I hope the EU brings everything it's got to Google, and brings the hammer down hard on them. The U.S. Justice Department seems to be completely unwilling to punish big corporations/elites anymore anyway (usually a big flashing sign for oligarchy).