This is how engineers think executive decisions are made and it is just not accurate.
The CEO of Toyota plays golf with the uncle of the head of the “we track you forever” group. They both feel like the nephew has a big future and there is a ton of money to be made over the next 5 years before the CEO plans to retire.
Plus, according to their marketing team, Volkswagen is worse. Much worse.
There is way less science and way more emotion at play.
The Ford Pinto scandal was found to be a pretty clear cut case of an auto company refusing to do a recall because dealing with the expected number of injuries and deaths would be cheaper.
So the OP's perspective is accurate. It's not all just golf and nepotism.
"The evidence suggests that Ford relied, at least in part, on cost-benefit reasoning, which is an analysis in monetary terms of the expected costs and benefits of doing something."
It has less to do with just emotion and more to do with politics. Maybe something is a marginal idea but you approve it because X is a good VP you want to reward.
A simple equation but no one actually operates that way. Except for maybe auto manufacturers from late-90s books-turned-movies starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.
Most variables are impossible to accurately predict. e.g. "Cost/probability of fine" -> how do you model the cost of brand tarnishment?
I think for a lot of tech products, it's more that the profit margins are tight and competition is fierce, such that spyware integration is needed to subsidize what would otherwise be a money-losing product. At which point the only remedy may be to impose regulations telling companies that no, you can't sell customer's private data without their permission -- and then the price of electronic goods should stabilize at a somewhat higher price but without the user-hostile features.
Revenue = (value of data per person) x (number of customers) - (probably of data loss) x (probability of fine) x (cost of fine).
If that number is greater than zero, they'll do it, if it's less than zero, they won't.