Fediverse

Ignorance is much stronger than apathy.

Average person does not understand why privacy is important. They were lucky enough not to (yet) experience repression, censorship or surveillance and often throw banal one liners like I've got nothing to hide.

It's only once you lived a while with someone (person or an institution) watching your every step you realize how it definitely changes you. You decide not to state your opinion, not to raise your hand, not to make the choice you would of you were truly free.

Same goes for welcoming your data against you.... But you're on fediverse. I'm packing to the choir here.

It's because privacy is not a trivial matter, especially in those sites. You have to go through endless legal jargon to see how exactly the platform is using your data. Your average user has the attention span of a goldfish because of Tiktok, he/she would never read the platform's privacy policy and will prioritize convenience over digital rights.

I think a big part is people don't understand the impact of what they are losing. It's not something tangible like their wallet or car being stolen, it's just "information" and they don't understand how that data can be used against them. Even when examples are given, such as the Cambridge Analytica incident, they think they are smart enough to be impervious to the manipulation so it doesn't matter.

Can confirm. I don't really care about internet privacy all that much, though I don't consider myself average.

That being said, I refuse to engage with Meta, for no particular reason.

Mark was right to call the people he’s leaching off of fucking idiots.

It was "dumbfucks". In context, people who trust Zuckerberg with their personal information are dumbfucks. His words.

I think the average user feels "They have nothing to hide" or "I don't really care". However they feel this way because they think they still have the ultimate control over their privacy. They believe that if they wanted to they could pack up every byte of data and quit the internet and that their digital ball of privacy info goes home with them.

Most user probably don't realize that the camera, gps and microphone on your internet connected devices are actively gathering data all the time.

They think that there is a special wall between what they post and what they do with the rest of their day; it's not.

The amount of time that you use the service, what you click, how long before clicks, etc etc etc is all tracked too. There is a data profile to "anticipate" and "guide" the users to further engagement. And all of that is before you talk about how much data-selling and brokering occurs.

I think people only care about their privacy if the consequences is something they can see/feel directly (e.g. privacy related to election)

Most people do not have to a reason to care about privacy, until the day their private comms/data gets leaked and abused is when they will give a damn.

its perplexing when i talk to my siblings and realize how little they actually care about their privacy online, its almost if they enjoy giving out their private information to companies

I feel like the average person doesn't understand their options and doesn't want to understand them because it's difficult to them. When I try to help explain privacy issues to others, their eyes glaze over instantly. They don't want their private information to be collected and sold, but they don't have the attention span to learn about "tech stuff".

I get the feeling that the average person doesn't understand what privacy means in relation to the Internet.

Americans don't care about privacy unless it's China collecting data.

Mots people do care about privacy, but most people see more pressing issues that goes first. It's hard to care about something intangible when it's hard to have a roof over its head, or to pay the bills.

Also musicians won't hesitate to put their audience at risk. They doesn't care about what they're asking their audience, because they 'feel' like they have no choice. Which is objectively wrong.

And musicians are often ignorant about copyright laws, so how can they protect their audience if the don't know how to defend them self?

I was always taught to keep my real life off the internet so my thoughts on privacy as it pertains to the Internet largely are irrelevant. They're going to profile my online persona; not me, the real human being behind the keyboard.

Of course part of that includes not giving my real name even if they ask, and not using apps that are really egregious in the data they collect (like with the app permissions Threads requires).

I am for data collection to a certain degree. Using it to target ads may be kinda cringe, but I don't see it as evil. Collecting usage data to improve the thing I am using is also okay. The data I don't want collected is, like, my name. My address. My phone number. My bank info. Etc.

Privacy is complicated and often a luxury. Not everyone has the technical understanding to protect their privacy, nor the money to always choose the privacy-conscious option (which are almost always paid options). And to be honest, they shouldn't really have to if governments did their jobs and brought in effective privacy protection laws.

I think that the average person is just ignorant about the issues regarding privacy, or doesn't have the time and energy to find out/care about it. Big societal issues such as privacy require some digging into to find information on, and they require some (a lot of) thinking to fully understand the problems and the consequences of these issues. A lot of people are already struggling to deal with their daily lives. Big issues like internet privacy and data collection are too big and too distant for them to care about, and the short-term convenience gained from giving in is too good. It's currently quite a hassle for the average layman to learn how to use and implement the tools to protect your privacy (not helped by the big businesses deliberately making things difficult).

I mean, ActivityPub as a whole sucks at privacy.

Not just that, but I think the average person also thinks with social media being around 15-20 years already, that their data is probably already out there on the Internet anyways.

So because of that, they just don't care.

People do, but have no clue.

Just think of all those posts we see that go "so I looked in my Google history and see they've been recording everything for the last decade and holy shit this is creepy" oh-snap moments.

It's just not something a normal person thinks about. I mean, just like a normal person wouldn't consider the thoughts of a serial killer, similarly people don't consider that stalking mega corporations could do what they do.