There's not a word in this article about why this breach of privacy matters while others do not. It's not stated whether this was in the terms of service for the app, and whether those terms were ruled against.
All kinds of apps have been selling personal information for a long time, and it's been ruled before that it's allowed if they have the proper legalese in the terms of service. Did this app just not have any terms of service?
Why is it a breach of privacy for this app, but other apps doing the same selling of personal data is not?
Caffeine is pretty well studied and it's known that the long term health effects are nothing close to cocaine. I doubt if there was any good science back then on the long term effects of cocaine, let alone enough education for the populace to know and understand it.
However social perceptions may change anyway. What we consider as not serious may be considered much more serious in the future. For example many people get headaches or even migraines as a withdrawal symptom of caffeine, and we don't consider a headache to be serious.
But I saw a Star Trek episode once where Picard gets a headache and it was a big deal because those had been solved for hundreds of years by that time! Turns out the ferengi were controlling his mind or something. So caffeine may be considered a serious drug in the future if it interferes with the detection of alien mind control devices.
And then a billionaire gets in their private jet, and in just 5 seconds of flight generates 8000 times more carbon emissions than she's saved in her entire life.
Recycling companies have been known to sit.ply export it to another country with worse regulations and dump in the landfill. You should try to find out where their plastic goes and what happens to it. You can't really just trust that recycling companies are doing things right.
The whole benefit of texting instead of calling is that it is an asynchronous form of communication. The conversation can continue while at the same time other things are happening. Since other things are happening, that means replies aren't always prompt, and that the benefit.
If you want immediate replies, use a phone call instead. You know, the form of communication that is directly suited for that.
Not to mention that people don't always have cell service. I take all weekend to reply to a text sometimes if I'm at home, because I don't get service unless I drive to town.
I think it would be a lot more reasonable to expect undocumented issues. They have a lot to lose and it's controlled by a billionaire. As if they're not going to try to cover it up.
So what are they doing that illegal that other apps aren't doing??
I really don't know how to be any more clear with this question.