these "ring is using mixpanel" headlines are really funny to me 'cause literally every "modern product-driven company" is bundling these user-segmenting things, and it's all got surveillance baked in. Everyone is using the login-with-facebook button to send events to their advertising data warehouse blackhole. focusing on the statist thugs I think obscures that, because well they're statist thugs. This also came up recently with TikTok being banned by a bunch of US corporations, all these people acting like what China or TikTok does is somehow unique when it's the entire model.
the problem is not any particular actor, it's the entire modern "data-driven" design and development methodologies. it's the idea that we can collect enough data to super-charge some machine learning neural net nonsense and INCREASE PROFIT! or INFLUENCE PUBLIC OPINION! I think that's largely overstated, a veil for much more effective mobilization of capital and effort.