I agree with you on the "radioactive waste" aspect, but I put "big tech" in quotes to suggest the sense in which lay people tend to interpret the phrase. I'm fine if there is an angry public response to all of it, but if we've going to be selective (only angry at the sexy companies with consumer-facing products) then IMO our selection to date has been suboptimal wrt. effective protection of consumers.
Unfortunately, I think it's going to take wholesale misuse of the data of large swathes of the population that dwarfs the reach of Equifax and the sensitivity of ashley Madison while effecting at least a couple ultra wealthy public names, to get sane consumer data protection laws with teeth and enforcement.
