The multi billion dollar company has a lot of influence over the people in your community and the things that they gossip about. It also has influence over an increasing number of areas in your life as well. "Targeted ads" are just what they tell us they're doing with our data, because nobody actually cares which ads they see. Ads aren't the only things they do with it though.

Gossip is a hugely important part of how a community constitutes itself. Without gossip, you don't even have a community. Of course, it can go in malicious and destructive directions as well