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Comment by physPop | Hacker News Reader

HN crowd is not representative of the world at large. consumers don't care. cost and convenience are primary motivators.

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Onve again it's been shown that consumers do care when they are properly shown the extent of data collection and/or are allowed to opt out.

E.g. when iOS introduced "ask apps to not track", 96% of users clicked "do not track": https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/96-of-us-users-opt-o...

If consumers didn't care, companies wouldn't go to extreme lengths to hide the fact that they are tracking you, and to invent craxier and crazier dark patterns to trick you into giving up your data.

What about when it's "accept all" and "reject and subscribe for $1.99"?

Illusion of choice forced onto you by the tracking industry. Again, if consumers didn't care, the tracking industry wouldn't need to present users with this "choice".

As far as I can tell, many “regular” people do care and alter buying decisions based on privacy concerns. They use words like “creepy” instead of technical ones, but the underlying discomfort is the same.

> They use words like “creepy”

This is common for useless products, like smart glasses or pendant-style AI devices. When consumers have clear utility, however, most give away privacy quite willingly.

> When consumers have clear utility, however, most give away privacy quite willingly.

Exhibits 1, 2, and 3; "Smart" phones, "Smart" watches, and pretty much 90% or so of "apps" people install on either from their respective "app stores".

I doubt the vast majority of people objecting to ads are doing it because creepy privacy invading reasons compared to just simply who would actually want ads running on a screen on the fridge? Who would actually just stand in front of the fridge watching an ad? Unless they really do something stupid like keep the fridge locked until the ad finishes, but really, who do they think is going to pay attention to it?

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