>When people say they care about privacy, most of the time they mean they care about anonymity, as in privacy from people who knows them personally. They don't want their internet search history to be known by friends or family or coworkers, but they probably have no qualm if it's just data being sent to large corporate service providers.
>That's why people would continue to trade personal info for conveniences for the foreseeable future, and as long as corporations maintain public anonymity for those data the most we'll ever see are temporary public outrages.
Absolutely agree. We've had no shortage of privacy related issues surfaced in the mainstream media, likely most notably Snowden's leaks. Some in the media made a concerted effort to make people understand just how grave the situation was, for example Colbert letting everyone know, on air, that they can access the dick pics you've sent people privately.
People heard it, digested it briefly, shrugged their shoulders and continued on without regard. In fact, people have become worse with their private information than ever before:
- People are now sending their DNA to private companies, with no care for the T&Cs involved, in exchange for utterly shallow, almost irrelevant genetic history infographics.
- People are wearing "wearables" that are reporting their heart rate, activity levels, sleep quality, etc. to private companies.
- People are opening their homes up to 24/7 surveillance with always on, always listening "smart home" devices.
- Many more people than ever are posting naked photos/videos of themselves on Reddit, Snapchat, etc., hosted on sites whose owners they have no clue of, ran by staff they have no idea of, etc.
They were told the risks, they did not care and so will be given, and will deserve, zero sympathy when something comes out highlighting the abuses enabled by some of the above. "We didn't know!" does not cut it anymore.