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There are a lot of humans that are OK with that. The average person do not value privacy that much. There are a lot of people willing to trade data/usage patters for a free app. On the proposition "Pay $5/month or pay $0 but let me track you" a lot of people will choose the 2nd.



they may choose the 2nd option, but it's unknown if they would continue if told what the ramifications are. People chose brexit without knowing its ramifications, because they did not understand fully their choice. I suspect those who opt for tracking is also making this mistake.


I doubt it, as a tech savy user I know the ramifications but still going to for the 2nd option. Why ? Because the ramifications is largely inconsequential or not harmful enough for me to care


And this is the problem. You know the ramifications for you as an individual are fairly small, but this is a problem of scale. Billions of people handing over their data allows the creation of much more sophisticated and insidious models. The costs of your decisions are externalized to society as a whole and will affect you one day. You just don't see that.

It is the classic tragedy of the commons. Everyone doing whatever is best for themselves leads to the absolute worst outcome for everyone (including yourself) in the end. E.g you running 50 kWh of AC per day is pretty inconsequential. 2 billion people doing the same is not.


So then what is the effect on me ?




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