I'm certainly not hiding my identity behind layers of personas because my life is at stake. I do believe my data has value and that I shouldn't be giving it away to a consumer service for them to monetize at will. Have I taken every available measure? No. Have I made it reasonably difficult for Facebook to figure out who I am, to the point that I'm not endlessly hounded by advertisers and tracked across the depths of the net? Yes. But if we've come to the point where surveillance and social media have merged to the point that no one can post notes to their family and friends without leaving a trail of state-level surveillance data that is kept forever, well then we've all already lost. The IPO of Move Fast and Break Things will continue to haunt everyone for decades to come in ways we haven't even imagined yet.

Why do you think they’re allowed to exist, and haven’t been legislated out of existence? Public-private partnerships provide a great model for state-level actors to effectively do what they aren’t “allowed” to do...

That's an unfounded consipiracy.

The reality is very simple, these companies dominate the advertising industry (which is huge) so they make a lot of money. That's all it comes down to.

Sounds like a job for GDPR man.