> but still use the services because of free/cheap/etc
(of course a side effect might be that half the economy implodes but thats besides the point ^^)
making things free causes a loss of price signal, so i'd say it would be a good idea to restore that...
> So an intervention would just be anti-consumer?
> but people wouldn’t use it.
said in another way, i feel like giving the customer upfront knowledge about what something actually costs is more pro-consumer because now we can make informed choices
I don't think this (people not realizing it) is true. We've heard this argument since early 2010s, and the general attitude of population is "ok, cool, so what?". Even people like me, who know that I'm paying it with my data, still overwhelmingly prefer using such services.
For every scandal about data leakage, 3rd party access and etc., the social media websites are still top used apps. People don't want their privacy/secrets/photos to be available to people they know, or might know. They don't really care about "giant faceless company"/government, even though they say they do.
I wish this was not true.