There are 2 issues in this:
1) Governments have law and warrants allowing them to get those data.
2) Companies with a lot of data are complying with those warrants.
The question is: can we fix #2 without fixing #1?
1) Governments have law and warrants allowing them to get those data.
2) Companies with a lot of data are complying with those warrants.
The question is: can we fix #2 without fixing #1?
The only real way to address #2 is by finding a way for companies to get all the value that comes from having this data without having to store or even process it.
If you catch a child doing something they aren't supposed to... Say sneaking chocolate you hid in your closet, when you aren't looking, and you don't catch them doing it until a week later; are we seriously going to entertain that the right action on catching these misbehaving children is to let them keep/continue to reap the benefits of their ill-gotten gains? That's what allowing the continuation of this metadata collection sounds like it amounts to to me.
This pervasive invasion of privacy is not normal, never has been; nor should it ever be.
Not breaking the capability for companies to engage in surveillance capitalism represents an implicit acceptance of the nullity of Constitutional protections through indirections facilitated by Third Party Doctrine. That is not okay.
In many cases, they're using it to do things users like. Such as estimating commute times. Or do demand modeling and understand where they should upgrade cell networks.
You can offer services without these things - and please do! - but expect users to notice.
Again, the question becomes: can you fix the child's behavior without fixing the fact that they are legally required to follow the police's words with no recourse?
It's just so far proven to not be as large as one might hope. Consumers, when faced with services that don't offer them the features they want and higher prices, often think twice about preferring privacy.
There's a lot of money to be made by someone who finds a way to deliver the full-fat experience consumers want at the prices consumers are used to while also respecting privacy. Until then, I expect things like Purism and Protonmail to stay fairly niche concerns.