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I was talking to a friend the other day and she mentioned she’d searched for a product online and then started getting ads for it, and asked how often it’d happened to me. She was very surprised when I said never and I explained that I’d been using an ad blocker for the last 15 years. And by the end of our conversation I’d walked her through setting it up on her devices and now she’s one step closer to regaining her privacy
I often find people really aren’t happy with their privacy being undermined but they don’t realise there are things they can do about it. They’ll say things like “well it’s happening to everyone else too” as a coping mechanism but it’s not something they want. More education is critical
AKA, people are stupid.
Not stupid, just uninformed. A lot of people are confused by how things like targeted ads work and because of that they just accept it as inevitable. They think “This website knows what I searched for on another website because it’s all linked. That’s how the internet works” and once you break down how the tracking is actually done, they realise it’s not infallible
It’s the same thing as people not knowing how planes stay in the air or what makes a car engine work. Nobody can be an expert on everything. I don’t mean to give you a lecture btw, I just think it’s counterproductive to dismiss people. But of course there are exceptions and some people just don’t want to know
Plus we are constantly barraged by things happening so hard to focus on just one thing
In the same way you are stupid for not knowing how your car works, sure.
People have limited knowledge about almost everything except their own narrow interests.
We actually have TONS of things incommon with other people. Millions of things. There is no reason to act like you are special, or i am special.
A lot of people buy in to the argument that authorities should be able to conveniently take down bad people, and limiting privacy expectations is a way to do that.
It’s such a short sighted perspective, outsourcing the future to men who yearn for power like that.
A lot of people really can’t grasp the concept of the status quo changing. Once tools are created and laws are passed they can be used for anything. It’s never going to just be the one purpose
Here’s my personal answer to that question. I care about privacy. However, maintaining it has become a never ending process that gets more complicated as time goes on. Plus there’s always more one could do. I’m not going to stop using payment cards, I’m not going to get a prepaid phone running graphene, I’m not going to whatever comes next.
I’m starting to think that my personal cost/benefit analysis is leaning towards not caring about privacy. What have I gotten out of trying to maintain privacy? Inconvenience and expense. What have I gained from letting the creepy corpo overlords watch me? A decent map app, autocorrect, 3% cash back at restaurants and groceries, facebook marketplace. It really seems like I get services and discounts for giving up my privacy.
I even signed up for that fucking global entry program so I can have TSA precheck and get through customs fast. I hate that. It feels so wrong but I’m growing increasingly sure it doesn’t matter. I’m not special, the government won’t care about me now or in the future, and the benefits of not caring outweigh the gains of trying to hide.
This is a terrible point of view, I know, but I just don’t care anymore. I like the idea of privacy, but I’m finding the practicality to be too difficult.
Sounds like you’ve lost hope. What a shame. Goodbye.
Inspire me
Beyond my frustration at this being buried in a video podcast, I also would rather promote why people should be worried about privacy in a concrete and direct way.
The Cascading Impact of Privacy Loss
Concrete Example: A 10-Year Timeline
Year 0: You’re a healthy middle-class person who “has nothing to hide”
Year 3: Your insurance premiums inexplicably rise. You don’t know your fitness tracker data was sold and correlated with your grocery purchases.
Year 5: Passed over for promotion. Algorithm flagged social media posts about work stress as “low resilience indicator.”
Year 7: Attend peaceful protest. Face-recognition adds you to databases. Now randomly selected for “additional screening” at airports.
Year 9: Can’t get affordable loan. Your zip code + purchase history + social network = high risk score. The specific formula is proprietary.
Year 10: Chronic condition develops. Can’t get treatment covered - insurer says it’s “pre-existing” based on data you didn’t know they had from a DNA test you took for fun in Year 2.
Your lifespan: Statistically reduced by 5-10 years compared to privacy-protected cohort.
Privacy isn’t about “having something to hide.” It’s the immune system of human dignity, economic fairness, political freedom, and literally - survival.
Without it, you become a data object to be optimized for others’ profit and control, not a human with agency over your own life.
I will steal that.
Fun fact: every PeerTube channel has a podcast feed
https://apertatube.net/feeds/podcast/videos.xml?videoChannelId=5
I really find that most people I talk to do care about privacy. If I ask a person why they have window blinds and black out curtains, they will most likely say ‘to give me privacy’. Why do you have a key that goes to the lock on your front door? Well, that’s to prevent unauthorized access. So, the average person on the street does value privacy, security, and anonymity, there is just this disconnect between their daily real life, and their digital life. They just may not understand that in 2025, there is no real defining line between their real lives and their digital lives. It’s one in the same.
I don’t know too many people that would let me come into their house, use their resources to profit my company, without giving them due compensation. That would be ludicrous. Yet, they just don’t understand that this is exactly what happens with their digital data. Your data is bought and sold as a commodity, on a cyclical basis to bolster the profits of a corporation, without giving you due compensation. In 2025, surveillance capitalism and governmental surveillance are teaming up. More coverage.
So, yes, I would say that the common man in the street does value privacy, they just don’t quite understand the complexities that are going on behind the pretty pictures on their computer monitor. We, as the ‘enlightened’ are charged with educating the masses in lieu of condemning them for what they don’t understand.
So… The answer is (willfull) stupidity. Those same people say “because I have nothing to hide” with reference to their devices.
So… The answer is (willfull) stupidity
These are my opinions. There are many like them, but these are mine.
So let’s think about that. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve had a computer in front of me since the mid 70s. We are experienced. We understand. We get what’s going on behind all the pretty pictures, apps, and whatnot. Why? Because at some point in our lives we showed more than a general interest in computers or networking and have educated ourselves over the years. However, even tho I have had a computer since the mid 70s, I will openly admit, computers and networking are fucking complex. If IT/Computer knowledge was a 25’ tape measure, I’m probably at the 1" mark.
So, lets take the average family for example; two adults and 2-3 kids running around. Unless you are quite fortunate in life, it usually takes 2 incomes to make ends meet. Two adults go to work, come home exhausted. Try to spend a little time with the family, and collapse in bed to do it all over again tomorrow. On the weekends, again, time with family, extracurricular activities for the kids, try to get caught up on house hold chores, etc. Monday comes quick. The average person in this scenario doesn’t have time to read an IT textbook, or absorb the complexities of networking, or understand all the intricacies of preventing data leaks. What they know is that when the go to use their device, shit just works. If not, it’s off to a repair shop.
They are not stupid, or normies, or any of the other condescending labels affixed to them. They just don’t understand whats going on behind the scenes. It would be like me, a mildly educated man, trying to understand the complexities of brain surgery. Sure, I know where the brain is, I’ve seen MRI scans of mine (which has been damaged), but I have little idea how all of that works beyond when I get out of bed in the morning, the shit better work, or it’s off to the doctor’s office. I could just hear the neurologist asking me in regards to the intricate, inner machinations of my brain; ‘What? Are you just willfully stupid?’ It’s not that I’m stupid, it’s just that I haven’t had 15 years of structured, medical, education.
I just think that we will win over more converts using a different approach. A little sugar in lieu of vinegar.
I understand where you are coming from, but in my experience, the people I talk with, most just don’t care about privacy. When the situation is explained in plai terms, it’s like talking to a wall. When a simple means to reclaim some privacy is presented or offered, there is no interest.
I happen to currently fit into the discription you offered above, and I do find it challenging to improve my privacy. I’ve been putting off ditching google android on my main phone because I expect it to take hours. I even have a working prototype in my old pixel 2xl with LineageOS + microg. Maybe today I will take the plunge.
People who don’t care about their and their friends and family’s privacy until they are directly impacted are being willfully stupid. At least have the balls to see reality, even if one cannot entirely fix it.
I don’t want to come off as preachy to the community here either. It’s just something I feel strongly about. I’ll try to use the soap box sparingly.
the people I talk with, most just don’t care about privacy. When the situation is explained in plai terms, it’s like talking to a wall.
Yes, there are a lot of people who just don’t really care. A lot of people in my +70, boomer generation just fail to grasp the gravity of their actions either, much to my chagrin. They think the government is here to help. Side note: One of the most hilarious things I watched develop here in the US was centered around the participants of the Jan. 6th situation. People were shocked that the GPS beacon they carry around in their pocket was able to track them. Duh! I mean, the White House has it’s very own mobile phone network ffs. In addition, their FB posts, detailing their every last moment in their lives, replete with pictures, names, and even phone numbers/addresses, were easy pickings. Duh! However, I bet the majority of those people now practice some level of privacy, anonymity, and security in their lives, and if not…you can’t force a horse to drink. For some hard heads as you pointed out, it only becomes relevant when it happens top them, and then it’s shocking. Hard heads learn hard lessons.
I just think about if I were one of those who ‘just didn’t get it’. If someone approached me with some of the condensation I’ve seen expressed in privacy forums, I’d tell you straight out to piss off. So, that is my concern…the message. When dealing with the public, image is everything, regardless of how I feel about public images. In a lot of people’s minds, they already equate us to flat earthers, chem trail, conspiracy nuts who live in their mom’s dimly lit basement, wearing our favorite hoodie, thumbing through the latest edition of Soldier of Fortune. That’s already a hard nut to crack, and then add in negativity towards those who ‘just don’t get it’ and the message falls flat.
Of course they do. Just ask any random person if you can look at everything on their phone.
It’s a combination of ignorance, convenience, social pressure. They prioritize those over some amount of privacy violations.
I’ve never asked them because I don’t care why they don’t care.
They know I am willing to help if they decide to start caring.
They believe any data given to google or other data collecting sites isn’t that intrusive, or if it is, won’t be read by a person etc. Its a nihilistic philosophy, that “They already have it all anyway.”
Fucking great question.
Because people who don’t have to be taught the value of it by someone they respect and enjoy being around
People change for people they care about half of the time and the other half when they have sudden realizations that click for them
Because they don’t care about housing either. Unless they’re affected somehow.
I’m guessing because giving it away doesn’t have immediate consequences, and when the consequences come the cause is so far behind that it’s divorced in their minds and it either becomes an issue they raise against the company itself or, worst case scenario, they become complacent because it becomes the norm for it to be misused.
