I first really appreciated your thought - indeed, the fact that "Headphones are collecting personal data" alone feels like something unacceptable and shocking c

I first really appreciated your thought - indeed, the fact that "Headphones are collecting personal data" alone feels like something unacceptable and shocking compared to just 10 years ago. But then I had a counter thought: You know how in the early 20th century people said the dawn of recorded music would make 'music dead'? And many other examples of new tech being hailed as dystopian / would cause the end of the world? Sometimes the fear response to newness and unfamiliarity can be a little unhelpful. I think it's our lizard brains responding there. So I guess what I'm saying is: The fact that a new situation is so different to an old one you were used to, isn't a cogent argument against the new situation. Some new tech is genuinely awesome, and old things are genuinely terrible, e.g. old forms of industrialisation were terribly pollutive compared to forms used today. I'm a person who greatly values my privacy, and doesn't follow the crowd - but perhaps one needs to compare on merits alone, not on the fact that things have changed.