Isps ,ok but haven't search providers been doing this for a long time? Google and apple have gotten caught before if I remember correctly.
It's definitely not a perfect system, but Google et al aren't allowing advertisers to target a certain person. They gather certain info based on your cookies and IP. The advertiser comes in, uses an automated system to define who they want to target, and pay Google to serve their ads. There's a layer of anonymity there, though that anonymity is self-policed, so it's not 100% secure, obviously. ISPs have way more information about you. Before, you were a blurry silhouette, and now you're pretty clearly defined.
Real question: Does using a VPN noticeably slow down the time it takes for pages to load, etc, as you're connecting to the VPN and then the VPN is connecting to the site?
Edit: Google and their buds make a ton of money off of advertising. If you've ever wondered how / why all their consumer-level services are free, it's because they're not. You're paying them with your information. Now, if ISPs allowed you to opt into sellable data collection and gave you back $20 a month in return, I think that would be more in line with what Google and other advertising networks are doing.
Also, this all is of course done to line the pockets of the telecom conglomerates. But it also obviously encourages even more advertising from brands and corporations. These departments' main goal is to spend all of their money for the sake of having an increased advertising budget the next year. It's done moreso for the sake of itself than anything else. It only gets worse.
And I've been saying for years that the internet, sooner or later, will revert to AOL. We'll have 100 curated, walled "channels" we can access. URL bars, etc. will be gone.