I think the average person just simply doesn't care about their privacy.

BraBraBra@lemmy.world to Fediverse@lemmy.world – 1438 points –

In some of the music communities I'm in the content creators are already telling their userbase to go follow them on threads. They're all talking about some kind of beef between Elon and Mark and the possibility of a boxing match... Mark was right to call the people he's leaching off of fucking idiots.

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The problem isn't that people don't care. The problem is that the negative consequences are too abstract/too far to see. Not so different than smoking or climate change denial.

The problem is that the negative consequences are too abstract/too far to see.

What are the negative consequences that most people seem unable to see?

Information is power. Information is used against you pervasively for control. This control ranges in nefariousness. You want examples? Here are some examples of consequences of use of information as a means of power:

  • A present or future employer making HR descisions based on your behaviour outside of work.
  • An insurance provider discriminating you and your coverage based on some knowledge like a pre existing condition or behaviour
  • Behaviour that is socially acceptable today or appropriate in context being broadcast in the future when it is not or out of context
  • Defamation
  • Extortion
  • Being targeted for having certain political thought
  • Being targeted by perpetrators of acts of violence, theft, or nuisance (think swatting)
  • Being manipulated into making purchasing or life descisions that are not in your best interest
  • Systematic or discrete racial, sexual, religious or other identity discrimination
  • ...

The usual response to a list like this goes something along the lines of, bah, none of that will happen to me, I'm a goody-two-shoes. That advice is about as good as saying "I'm a good driver, I won't get into a crash, so I don't need to wear a seatbelt". Back to my point, the consequences of information used against you are too far and too abstract for people to accept.

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You say not so different from smoking or climate change, but those are on completely different scales. Unless Mark Zuckerberg is doing some Samuel L Jackson in Kingsman level nefarious shit, then I don't think you can compare loss of privacy to getting fatal cancer or destroying the planet.

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