49 ms·

I didn't say people should be blamed for signing up, but for continuing to use these companies and services after seeing many people burn or because they prefer

I didn't say people should be blamed for signing up, but for continuing to use these companies and services after seeing many people burn or because they prefer the convenience. If you: - want the convenience - are not willing to pay for it - and have gone out of your way to avoid doing your research on how this thing works == it's on you but i'm not saying this to blame people really, i want people who are in this position to take responsibility for themselves and look up wtf is (for example) google doing and how is it free, then choose if they're ok with that (and stop complaining) or are not (and quit it). Enough people leaving Gmail will absolutely make a dent in how Google thinks. I'm optimistic about this. More people are waking up to the technological-slavery we're living in.

Dylan16807 5y ago
> how is it free Because it's subsidized by their massive advertising business? They don't need to be this invasive to keep that up. And they track paying customers too.
ehnto 5y ago
Funnily enough I am cynical about this, I don't think people will en masse figure it out and ditch the services as I don't think it's on teir radar at all. Which is perhaps why I feel more strongly that it's exploitation versus a choice they make. It's why in this circumstance I am pro regulation on the adtech industry, as I feel it is the only way to protect people who don't see the dangers. Similar to how regulation is the only way we get ethical food production at such a large scale. When systems get too big, past regular human scale and on to conglomerate scale, it's hard for the average person to see and understand the whole system and its harmful factors. Thanks for the considered reply by the way.