I think that that is just about the saddest thing I’ve heard in a long time. Seems like you’ve given up on protecting your right to a private life.
Your conclusion would mean that if companies just go on make it “normal” enough to do abnormal things they can safely get away with it, because you’ll give up on fighting it.
In essence I think that’s the core problem. Most people have decided to give up and let them have it.
I always ask: would you also be so ‘easy going’ if Google or Apple sent someone round to your house to follow you around all day, read your mail, look at your habits, drive to work with you, go shopping with you and sleep next to you?
I’m fairly sure you’d at least be a bit annoyed?
My opinion is that these companies have actually done just that: our phones are with us every moment of the day, and our online activities are tracked at every turn.
What would your reaction be once your health insurance starts raising your premium because you went to McDonalds twice last month, so might be developing a fast food addiction? Or your home insurance premium is raised because you have bought a gas barbecue? Or your local pizza restaurant refuses to take your order because your inbox shows 2 reminders for bills still to be paid?
I understand it is very difficult to escape big tech in this, but should we not at least keep asking the “why” question? Why do you “need” this? Why do you do this? Why am I not allowed to not have this done to me?
Not questioning and objecting means we legitimise this very invasive encroachment of our private living sphere.
To get back to the OP question:
I have a huge issue with tracking, not because of the ads, not at all, it’s because of the “what else can we do with this data. Who else can we sell it to?”
I want to be able to search for something and get to see objective search results, not search results that fit my “profile” or “target demographic” I would really like to be able to use social media like facebook to see funny pictures of cats, but I do not want to be faced with whatever the algorithm thinks will bring them the biggest return on investment based on my tracking profile.
I truly believe a lot of the current polarisation of society in general is due to this “you see what fits your tracking profile” If you are constantly shown what you already believe it’s very difficult to look at issues from different perspectives. And why would you, your timeline shows you “your truth”
As DPO I see many of the marketing vs privacy discussions first hand, and believe me, our voice as customers is not very loud if it were left up to commerce. Don’t think it would be heard at all if not for privacy regulation or people complaining.
And yes it is hard. But very little worth while fighting for isn’t.
I don’t love having to use Linux (though I like the OS) for most of what I do, or use a phone with Lineage OS/Calyx OS, use duckduckgo for searches, email through protonmail, and yes: read ALL the privacy statements they show me, and yes: Manually go through all the check boxes. But I do it. Why? Because I’m not quite ready to give up yet.
I hope you can at least keep some elements of your life private.