There are measures you can take, but the reality is that if you want to participate in the broader society you’re going to have to start making compromises somewhere. You’re going to have to use chat apps other people use, payment methods that are accepted in the stores, and so on. Some people are conscious of these things, but most people just don’t care. And if you are one of the people who worry about this stuff, you’re still stuck in a world where most people you interact with don’t. I don’t even think it’s so much a problem with tech literacy as just plain apathy. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that putting your whole life online is not a good idea, but people do it anyways.
And you’re completely right that there is systematic pressure for people to just give up and accept that they have no privacy. Having skills and money to opt out of surveillance becomes a privilege.
There are measures you can take, but the reality is that if you want to participate in the broader society you’re going to have to start making compromises somewhere. You’re going to have to use chat apps other people use, payment methods that are accepted in the stores, and so on. Some people are conscious of these things, but most people just don’t care. And if you are one of the people who worry about this stuff, you’re still stuck in a world where most people you interact with don’t. I don’t even think it’s so much a problem with tech literacy as just plain apathy. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that putting your whole life online is not a good idea, but people do it anyways.
And you’re completely right that there is systematic pressure for people to just give up and accept that they have no privacy. Having skills and money to opt out of surveillance becomes a privilege.