It's amazing what you can get used to; the aspect of human nature despots take advantage of and systematize. Your aversion is understandable. The idea of privacy is just that, an idea. We don't really know if what we do is private anyway, as most of what we consider private can be easily spied on or deduced from observation.

Renting puts me in someone elses space too, just not in the same contextual way - but, functionally no different.