(In case you weren't aware, Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp)
My impression of the issue is that most people simply don't care.
This is my impression as well, and I find it a bit of elitist arrogance to tell them they should. Different people value their data at different levels and we shouldn't be so quick to make it harder for them to give it away if they choose. A simple question one should ask while picking up their pitchfork is whether their perceived righteousness is based on perceived stupidity by the masses (and whether the perception is based on some anecdotal evidence). And if you really believe stupidity is that rampant, you can set your law-making pitchfork down and advocate education.
> that they should be informed as to what they're doing so they can actually make that decision
These two items are at odds with one another in an opt-in situation.
Facebook and Google should get in major trouble when they mistreat their data (like the Cambridge Analytica scandal with Facebook), but you disliking the data they collect and/or their business model does not mean that everyone else will.
I know full well the type of data Google and Facebook collect about me and I just don't care. There's plenty of people in the tech industry that don't care either.
I never said that, in fact I explicitly said the opposite.
"I know full well the type of data Google and Facebook collect about me and I just don't care."
Yes, and you were able to make an informed decision because you do know. Not everyone knows. That's the entire point I was making.
With regards to "shadow profiles", someone else's actions do diminish my privacy. I don't find it elitist or arrogant at all to protect my privacy in this way.
And, if someone came to me and said "stop doing this because it is negatively affecting me", I probably wouldn't think twice before stopping.
"stop increasing compliance burdens on the internet because it is negatively affecting me and my business"
Ya know, sometimes people actually do understand and they just don't agree with you. I'm not a Trump supporter, but I believe people who say they like Trump for reasons that aren't "politie".
These anti-Google and anti-Facebook people should learn to disagree better.
It's not difficult at all actually.. it becomes increasingly more difficult when you want to use these services and apps which you are the product by design, and the truth is this is week within the rights of those companies that are giving you their services for free..
This is all virtue signaling to the max as well as endorsing a more censored, controlled internet by these media outlets, tech, or govt..
After all, mums the word on an actual problem, the data breaches of credit reporting agencies, e.g. Equifax. These companies have essentially a govt endorsed monopoly on all of our data. And no one goes to jail when my actual important info gets hacked even after being warned, (DL/SSN, last 10 addresses, loan amounts and who I owe, etc.). On top of this, these companies can sell my info to other 3rd party vendors, and I literally have no recourse..
All this Facebook nonsense is hogwash. If your conspiratorial, there is a strong case to be made that this is about censorship, deference to the experts who know the web better than the masses who are "incapable" of using any discernment regarding bots or fakenews. These are the same people who brought us SESTA, FOSTA, PIPA et. al., same ones who told us we'd go back to dial up without net neutrality..
I personally think it's just virtue signaling to the max..
My impression is that people have absolutely no idea that Google has become so invasive as to purchase copies of most people's credit/debit card purchase histories, and would be horrified to learn that they have taken surveillance capitalism to such an extreme.
>Google has been able to track your location using Google Maps for a long time. Since 2014, it has used that information to provide advertisers with information on how often people visit their stores. But store visits aren’t purchases, so, as Google said in a blog post on its new service for marketers, it has partnered with “third parties” that give them access to 70 percent of all credit and debit card purchases.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/607938/google-now-tracks-...
If your solution is "don't use the most popular service in the world", your solution is simply not realistic for most people.