TV receivers didn't come with built-in user tracking.

You could get user tracking added by a company called Nielsen but they actually paid you a small sum for your data.

I think this is quite different.

Sure, I do not have a Facebook account for similar reasons despite hearing that a lot of valuable information and networks are on that platform. Ten years ago I might have complained about it loudly, but nowadays I tend to think about things more pragmatically. Or at least that's what I tell myself after I caved and bought a smartphone after resisting for over a decade since they became ubiquitous :)

I didn't use Twitter for the better part of the last decade and don't feel like I missed anything important. Idem with Facebook that I haven't touched in over ten years. If I cared enough about defeating trackers I could spin up a personal Nitter instance with a pseudonymous account, otherwise I see it as the price to pay to have access to such a large volume of information instantaneously, and I would rather be tracked by private interests than by the government.

I also find it frustrating when any organization, government or otherwise, only publishes information on restricted channels, but that is nothing new.

>I also find it frustrating when any organization, government or otherwise, only publishes information on restricted channels

Then we agree :)