Thats a great post, thank you. Just want to comment on your first paragraph:
Most people are pregmatic more then they are idealists. They can support the right to privacy by principal, but when it comes to take actions that would make their lives less convenient, they will most likely forget their ideals. That is not necessarily a bad thing. People know their personal data is collected when they use the services of Google/Microsoft or social media (I am not talking about services that secretly collect your data without any noticr, which is illegal in most countries). They know that and still choose to use them as they give them value.
Without collecting data, most if not all of those services would no longer be free. Moreover, ads would be less effective and companies would waste money on ads that wouldnt reach the relevant audience. They would make less profits which usually results in their products becoming more expensive. Finally, people wont stop seeing ads, they would just see more irrelevant ads (wouldnt you prefer seeing ads that might interest you and make you buy their product rather than ads of products which are completely irrelevant to you?). I cant say with complete confidence of course, but I believe most people would rather share their personal data than pay to use their everyday services.
This is only relevant to data being collected for marketing purposes. If the data is being used by the government that is another story. However, government that collects data on civilians and use it against innocent people, is probably not democratic anyway, and can abuse pretty much everything.
To begin with, I want to address people saying 'if you have nothing to hide it doesn't matter',
and I'd like to respond to that with a quote from Edward Snowden
"Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say."
and I'd like to respond to that with a quote from Edward Snowden
"Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say."
Most people are pregmatic more then they are idealists. They can support the right to privacy by principal, but when it comes to take actions that would make their lives less convenient, they will most likely forget their ideals. That is not necessarily a bad thing. People know their personal data is collected when they use the services of Google/Microsoft or social media (I am not talking about services that secretly collect your data without any noticr, which is illegal in most countries). They know that and still choose to use them as they give them value.
Without collecting data, most if not all of those services would no longer be free. Moreover, ads would be less effective and companies would waste money on ads that wouldnt reach the relevant audience. They would make less profits which usually results in their products becoming more expensive. Finally, people wont stop seeing ads, they would just see more irrelevant ads (wouldnt you prefer seeing ads that might interest you and make you buy their product rather than ads of products which are completely irrelevant to you?). I cant say with complete confidence of course, but I believe most people would rather share their personal data than pay to use their everyday services.
This is only relevant to data being collected for marketing purposes. If the data is being used by the government that is another story. However, government that collects data on civilians and use it against innocent people, is probably not democratic anyway, and can abuse pretty much everything.