It was wrong not to make it opt in but not deserving of the level of hate they’re getting for the decision. The big tech companies do things every day that are much more damaging to your privacy and they don’t send you an email telling you. LinkedIn’s spam marketing in the early days was downright scandalous.
I’ve always found Triplebyte open and insightful and their response shows they’re receptive to feedback, which is a rare thing these days. People should be respecting that instead of crucifying one of the only companies that actually listens to them. No company is perfect all the time.
Sounds like you've been privileged to work for companies that are OK with you looking around.
The analogy with dating services that people were bringing up earlier was a good one. Sure, some people are in open relationships, which is fine, but if Tinder were to assume that everybody was OK with having that aspect of their personal life exposed in public, it would be a massive problem.
If company is upfront and listens, any feature they will release or change will be done considering the privacy and security. You give your customer power and not take it away from them. You chose what you do about your data and no one else can make that decision on behalf of you
Because you opted in to creating those profiles and the information they contain, and made them public. You opted in.