There is additional irony in that the people who started the giant surveillance and online advertising services company in the 1990s relied on OS projects^1 that allowed users to download source code, compile it, install it and run it, all for free, without restriction aside from "copyleft" provisions. The company's "search engine" ran on open, permissively-licensed software
In other words, they did not need permission from a corporation that controlled the software
The other company whose name behins with "A" that provides a corporate-controlled mobile OS also relied on source code that they could download, compile, install, run and distribute for free, without restriction (aside from attribution provisions)^2 in order to create a mobile OS in the 2000s
1. Linux
2. FreeBSD, NetBSD
Also, the surveillance and ad services company used NetBSD libc when creating Android
In other words, they did not need permission from a corporation that controlled the software
The other company whose name behins with "A" that provides a corporate-controlled mobile OS also relied on source code that they could download, compile, install, run and distribute for free, without restriction (aside from attribution provisions)^2 in order to create a mobile OS in the 2000s
1. Linux
2. FreeBSD, NetBSD
Also, the surveillance and ad services company used NetBSD libc when creating Android