What you're missing is that software enables entities you shouldn't trust to work at scale in a way that does make it an issue. Staying very high level, we're

What you're missing is that software enables entities you shouldn't trust to work at scale in a way that does make it an issue. Staying very high level, we're primed to think of privacy in human-defined terms in a way. Your mom snooping over your shoulder on what you're typing/viewing at age 12 on your first PC is the cause. As a result, with tech privacy, we do a notional looking up and looking around, like you are, to evaluate it... ok, I know 20 people have my finsta, I only give out my number to like less than 2 people a year, I don't have a google account so no need to clear my cookies or use a VPN, and so on... What you're not accounting for that: - the very small amount of stuff you do let leak out because "most people can be trusted most of the time" gets ingested by that "most" delta. There is one or few very untrustworthy entities, you're right, but they still touch your online presence. This is the difference maker because of the scale these entities can work at (BlueKai is an example). - Shadow contacts, and so on, are a thing. You get sucked in either way by other's bad behavior