Most people have absolutely zero idea how much data they put out there, what’s done with it, and why any rational person would be horrified if they knew the extent to which individuals were tracked. Simply put, short of showing them how their lives are made worse, they don’t care, and can’t be made to care.
For friends and family, you can do things like give them books or send articles explaining it slowly in parts. For everyone else, just ask them if they know how Google tracks what they do in Incognito windows and see what they say. If they say that Google can’t or doesn’t, they might as well say the Earth is flat. You can’t argue with that, even though it’s provably false.
Most people have absolutely zero idea how much data they put out there
As evidence, I’ve heard people talk about worrying their phone is listening to their conversations. It’s not that they don’t care about privacy, it’s that they don’t even know what’s possible. With all the data collection that is happening, the data brokers are already selling a dataset predicting that you are going to be shopping for new baby items and what types of manipulative tactics are likely to work on you well before you talk to your friend about it.
I also truly hate “family groups” where phones and accounts commonly associated with you get just pings on a topic to make you more malleable to the idea when you finally get the ads.
Most people have absolutely zero idea how much data they put out there, what’s done with it, and why any rational person would be horrified if they knew the extent to which individuals were tracked. Simply put, short of showing them how their lives are made worse, they don’t care, and can’t be made to care.
For friends and family, you can do things like give them books or send articles explaining it slowly in parts. For everyone else, just ask them if they know how Google tracks what they do in Incognito windows and see what they say. If they say that Google can’t or doesn’t, they might as well say the Earth is flat. You can’t argue with that, even though it’s provably false.
As evidence, I’ve heard people talk about worrying their phone is listening to their conversations. It’s not that they don’t care about privacy, it’s that they don’t even know what’s possible. With all the data collection that is happening, the data brokers are already selling a dataset predicting that you are going to be shopping for new baby items and what types of manipulative tactics are likely to work on you well before you talk to your friend about it.
I also truly hate “family groups” where phones and accounts commonly associated with you get just pings on a topic to make you more malleable to the idea when you finally get the ads.