I think we'd probably disagree on the appropriate level of informed consent required for the use of free online services that no one is legally required to sign up for. I don't think it comes anywhere close to the standard established for health care or other industries or situations where that concept is generally used.
I think it does exactly that, though.
> I think we'd probably disagree on the appropriate level of informed consent required for the use of free online services that no one is legally required to sign up for.
We might not disagree as much as you expect on this. I'm less concerned about this sort of thing -- my concern is all the spying that takes place outside of such services. It's essentially impossible to function in society these days without being spied on due to surveillance capitalism. Even staying completely off the internet won't do it.
I'm honestly curious: what has changed? Ads and cookies have been a thing on the web since the very beginning and the terms of service are generally available for the curious. Is it just the scale with which it is happening today?
> ...my concern is all the spying that takes place outside of such services.
Are you talking about government surveillance here? If so I'm definitely with you on that. I think the extent to which private companies can be leveraged and compelled by the government to turn over information is very disconcerting. I see that as a problem of abusive state authorities though, not anything to do with capitalism.
Big Data. Ads and cookies have not always been around, but they've been around for a long time now. Tracking as much as possible of what you do on the net and in real life, and combining that data into large databases for mining, is relatively new.
> Are you talking about government surveillance here?
I'm talking primarily about surveillance by marketers, although government surveillance is also a concern.
How is it ridiculous? The business model is entirely the monetization of data obtained through surveillance and spying (I define "spying" as surveillance that is taking place without the target's informed consent). "Surveillance capitalism" seems a perfectly apt description of this.