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Comment by michaelsshaw | Hacker News Reader

>No they aren't.

They are. Not necessarily en-masse, but 10 years ago the terms "digital footprint" and "third-party cookies" were not commonly known terms. They are now.

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do you have an actual source? these are just terms for a trend that very few people are actually following. total time spent on digital devices and social media is only going up.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1045353/mobile-device-da...

https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/how-much-time-does-the-ave...

This is a false dichotomy; both things can be true at the same time. Just because some groups increase their time massively on media, particularly children, doesn't mean that the privacy movement is not growing. Take into account the addiction factor, people doing things they know are bad for them because the _need_ that dopamine hit.

Just take a look at the iPhone advertising slogan: "Privacy. That's iPhone" It's not, but people like to pretend to actually care about data collection, and that's why they use it in their promos.

Other than that, laws are currently being passed in several states[0] that are attempting to limit this extreme data collection. These laws are limited compared to their European counterparts and are obviously not enough, but clearly people do care.

[0] https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/us-data-privacy-...

Eh I give credit for the cookie thing entirely to GDPR, and I question the general usability of “digital footprint”. So I think you’re extending your personal experiences a bit far. That said, just looking at Europe to avoid “new internet user” bias from poorer nations, this random website says that a few (facebook, Instagram, and Twitter notably) shrunk a little last year, so hey, maybe I’m the out of touch one

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1334334/social-media-user...

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