This is sad. This twisted misapprehension of privacy is worse than useless, bit it's so ubiquitous that many people are coming up believing that this rubbish is

This is sad. This twisted misapprehension of privacy is worse than useless, bit it's so ubiquitous that many people are coming up believing that this rubbish is what online privacy actually means. Privacy is not about preventing tracking, hiding your identity, disguising your location, or any of the other useless bullshit that these products are all about. Privacy is about building and curating your online identity to contain the information you want to disclose, and to not contain the information you want to keep private. Maintaining your privacy is about exercising restraint when communicating in forums, when filling out profile information, when posting pictures, or otherwise communicating online. It's about disconnecting activity from your curated identity as appropriate, but it's not about disappearing entirely; that way leaves an information vacuum for others to fill in ways you may not agree with. Most of all, it's not about distrust of corporate entities or other concentration of power. It's about learning how to interact with them in ways that benefit you and avoid harm. You don't need to hide from all-powerful watchful eyes, you just need to be reasonably mindful of everyone else who is there online with you, and avoid painting a picture of yourself that you may later regret.