Why is this not a bigger deal? The internet should be in uproar over this; why is this the first time I'm reading about it !?

It has been definitively admitted. This is a big tech cartel.

So all of this 'We value your privacy' statements and 'building products that respect your privacy' was all marketing BS?

SURPRISE! /s

At this point it is an expectation for them to violate your privacy and create a round table discussion with other companies to find ways to not get caught.

No, it hasn’t. The thread said that Apple was in the talks somehow, but didn’t say what they were discussing or what Apple wanted or was willing to do. Apple didn’t admit anything here.

That was the oddest part of the selected tweet used by OP. There are dozens of great points from same source outlining all of the incredibly hinkey and downright illegal collusion between Google and Facebook, but the inclusion of Apple has no references and Microsoft is almost a random aside in the looooong sequence of tweets about the ad market fixing by the two main companies in this scheme.

Why are people still using gmail? Go sign up for fastmail or protonmail and pay them $3-5 a month. Both support custom domains. Is your privacy really not worth that much?

Don't forget that email metadata and content is available for both sender and recipient, and even if you are using a different provider, most people are on gmail, and most businesses are on either gmail or outlook.

Which is exactly why more people need to switch to other providers (:

$0 is infinitely less than 0.01$ and not merely as a truism. This is, unofrtunately, why the ads business exists.

Take it as a sign that people care more about User Experience and Convenience than privacy.

Nice to know for my next startup.

The power these four companies hold is incredible.

By shutting down services to a country, these four companies could likely trigger a recession in any country of their choosing.

It would be economic suicide for the companies.

But the fact that they have the power to execute such an idea is astounding.

Oh, this should be causing a massive outcry from the public, yet we are seeing none, these tech giants need to be controlled, else they will control us