> most of humankind lived in small tribes or villages, everyone knew everyone's business and privacy practically didn't exist No, you are missing the point. Th

> most of humankind lived in small tribes or villages, everyone knew everyone's business and privacy practically didn't exist No, you are missing the point. The problem is in unequal access to information. If two neighbors can see each other's business it's not a problem most of the time. It's equal. If a powerful entity runs large surveillance programs against a large number of citizens and individuals cannot do the same... it's a dictatorship. > ... people acting like anonymity is some long-standing norm in human society. It's really not. It's relatively new and relatively uncommon. Not at all. In many societies it was common to be known under a different names in different cities or while traveling. Without IDs and documents people had extremely strong anonymity.