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"If they knew what I know, they'd care like I do." This is an extremely easy main-character mindset to fall into. The truth of the matter is that for a lot of p

"If they knew what I know, they'd care like I do." This is an extremely easy main-character mindset to fall into. The truth of the matter is that for a lot of people, perhaps even most, they wouldn't care even if they knew as much as you. For most people, they see how convenient services are, how good they are at recommending products you may want to buy, friends you may want to connect with, videos you may want to watch, etc. They perceive ads as payment for using these services. They see privacy popups and prompts as frustrating interferences. They understand at some level that the companies are doing it deliberately, that they're making handing over your data as easy and convenient as possible and opting out as hard as possible; that those cookie prompts are incredibly obnoxious to coerce you into just clicking "Accept All". But human nature is human nature and people generally prefer the convenience.

Lio 4y ago
...and yet when given a choice that's not marred in dark patterns or made obnoxiously repetitive they choose overwhelmingly to opt out. That was the whole thrust of what Facebook was objecting too; they didn't want people to have a choice.
- Defletter 4y ago
  Sure, but that's not the same thing: people overwhelmingly choosing to opt out when presented with a binary yes/no prompt is not the same thing as caring as much as you about privacy. Those people aren't going to start campaigning for privacy regulation because they opted out of Facebook's additional tracking. I generally refer to this as the "Don't Send" principle, if you remember those old Windows errors.
autoexec 4y ago
> They perceive ads as payment for using these services. The problem is that they've been tricked into thinking 'ads' are the cost that they pay. The reality is that they'll be paying for the rest of their lives in ways they never thought were possible and with no way to back out. The more people start to learn about how the data they've surrendered for a tiny bit of convenience is, and has been, being used against them they'll slowly come to realize that they've been ripped off and had no idea what they were giving up. They'll discover that they were lied to when they were told the services they enjoy couldn't exist without that sacrifice. By the time most of them catch on it'll be to late, but they'll certainly care then.

Lio 4y ago

...and yet when given a choice that's not marred in dark patterns or made obnoxiously repetitive they choose overwhelmingly to opt out. That was the whole thrust of what Facebook was objecting too; they didn't want people to have a choice.

Defletter 4y ago
Sure, but that's not the same thing: people overwhelmingly choosing to opt out when presented with a binary yes/no prompt is not the same thing as caring as much as you about privacy. Those people aren't going to start campaigning for privacy regulation because they opted out of Facebook's additional tracking. I generally refer to this as the "Don't Send" principle, if you remember those old Windows errors.

autoexec 4y ago

> They perceive ads as payment for using these services. The problem is that they've been tricked into thinking 'ads' are the cost that they pay. The reality is that they'll be paying for the rest of their lives in ways they never thought were possible and with no way to back out. The more people start to learn about how the data they've surrendered for a tiny bit of convenience is, and has been, being used against them they'll slowly come to realize that they've been ripped off and had no idea what they were giving up. They'll discover that they were lied to when they were told the services they enjoy couldn't exist without that sacrifice. By the time most of them catch on it'll be to late, but they'll certainly care then.