Because you and almost everyone else agreed to the Terms of Service where you consented to let them stalk you until they can make an accurate enough simulation of you to sell increased chances to change your behavior to the highest bidder.

You can stop at any time. Cancel your cell phone subscription and turn off your phone. It is a perfectly valid choice.

Uninformed consent is not consent. And while you may enjoy your life without a mobile subscription, many would not.

>Uninformed consent is not consent.

True, but a Terms of Service document is the vehicle by which you are informed and consenting. If you're not willing to read the information you're choosing to remain uninformed.

When it takes multiple lifetimes to read the Terms of Service for everything a normal person uses to get through daily life, it’s not a case of willingness

I read every legal contract I agree to. It is crazy not to.

If it is too long and hard to read, there is a reason for that and you can just opt out.

I do think apps should force people to actually scroll through ToS at a normal reading speed or tldr the horrible things they will do to you front and center like we forced the tobacco industry to do.

Most of humanity enjoyed their lives without pocket internet until the last couple decades. Saying people cannot be happy without that is like saying they cannot be happy without smoking.

This Apple or Google phone culture is a false dichotomy.

I run a b2b tech company in silicon valley, and have endless technical hobbies and do not need Apple or Google products or a cell carrier to be happy.

It is always possible to choose tech that you own and control. It just takes a bit more research because the open ecosystems lack marketing budgets.

This is not how the GDPR works, just because you stuff it in the ToS doesn't make it legal. Consent has to be explicit and freely given, using the service cannot hinge on accepting tracking.

> Because you and almost everyone else agreed to the Terms of Service where you consented to let them stalk you

Because some laws (GDPR) are only valid for some people.

No one took Stallman seriously in the early '00s cuz he looks like a total nerd.

Imagine living in the alternate universe where open source or privacy had a Jenny McCarthy.

It’s also because good UI/UX is expensive, open source has never been able to do it, and people are lazy. If you are a person who likes messing with computers and figuring stuff out, you are weird. Most people loathe it. It was super easy for superior UX to capture users and herd them into surveillance ecosystems.

He still looks like a nerd. I think it’s terminal.

Because no one made it illegal?