> if your business is based on tracking that means your business is based on illegal activities

Why? Tracking is not illegal. It's just tracking without consent that's illegal.

Also: who really wants to be tracked. I agree must people don't care if they are, but who actively wants that?

Who wants to pay for anything? All else being equal, people would rather get things for free. But you can't run an economy that way. It turns out that for many people the perception of getting something for nothing is an adequate substitute.

> All else being equal, people would rather get things for free. But you can't run an economy that way.

I have an alternative ideology to sell you...

something something share the wealths and seize the means of production

we product enough to feed everyone.

Let's be real. How many websites/apps ask for real, informed consent for tracking? Tracking without consent is the norm.

Let's be real. How many users care?

I don't - and I am fully informed and prepared. A month into the cookie banners avalanche and I just started clicking OK without looking. Now I have the "I don't care about cookies" extension and that's it.

> Let's be real. How many users care?

I think this question is very context sensitive. The way privacy questions are usually presented ("we want to improve/personalize your experience"), I don't think most people care. But when presented with actual outcomes of loss of privacy (e.g. the Cambridge Analytica scandal) people seem to care a lot. For most people I suspect there's a gap in understanding between how people think their data is used and how it's actually used. Whenever this gap is closed by a major scandal where "how the sausage is made" is revealed, there's often a strong reaction.

But perhaps the biggest indication that people do care about privacy is that ad companies are so reluctant to allow them to opt out of tracking. If (almost) nobody cares, what's the harm in having clear consent or an opt out?

Lots. I have yet to come across someone who didn't care, after they understood what was happening. Virtual anonymous people in forums don't count ;)

I care a lot, and I like having the option to make the choice on a cookie banner and use it.

Not one person I've asked has responded that they would be willing to post their entire browser history on the open internet.

And even with that distinction, plenty of business models become (rightly) unviable because of how badly it tanks the conversion rate.

Does it tank the actual conversion rate, or just the ability to see/attribute certain conversions?

I think if interpretation and enforcement works the way we hope it will then that becomes a difficult business model.

That is: where you can’t track people without explicit consent, consent is as easy to not give as to give, and you can’t choose not to deliver the service or deliver a worse service to those who do not consent.