But if everyone uses the phrase that way, then it's not dishonest for this person to do it too. That's how language works. If I tell my student, "the early bird gets the worm", it's idiotic to call me stupid because I confused a human with a bird. I didn't in fact do that. I used a common idiom in the language that we all understand. The fact that you can recognize there's a literal meaning that wasn't accurate is pointless. I'm not dishonest or a liar either. I used language in a non-literal way, just like all of us do hundreds of times every day.
When someone says "company X is using your data", there's a common understanding in play. We all know what they mean. They mean "data they've collected about you". If you want to call everyone names because, taken literally, it's incorrect, then go ahead, but you're beating a dead horse here. And I'm not actually accusing you of pummeling the carcass of an equine. I'm saying you're spending your energy on a pointless task, but doing so in a way that relies on you understanding that the meaning of a sentence isn't strictly determined by the meaning and order of the individual words in it.
When someone says "company X is using your data", there's a common understanding in play. We all know what they mean. They mean "data they've collected about you". If you want to call everyone names because, taken literally, it's incorrect, then go ahead, but you're beating a dead horse here. And I'm not actually accusing you of pummeling the carcass of an equine. I'm saying you're spending your energy on a pointless task, but doing so in a way that relies on you understanding that the meaning of a sentence isn't strictly determined by the meaning and order of the individual words in it.