This is why regulation is important. Most people don't care what their phone tattles about them to their provider. Similarly, most people don't read the ingredient list on their food.
But the ingredient list /has/ to be there, by regulation, and because it is, small numbers of people can post analysis that guides the entire population.
We need similar regulation over computerized devices, and that's everything from desktop computers through phones to self-driving cars and smart fire alarms.
By the end of 1998, Stallman had formulated a position: open source, while helpful in communicating the technical advantages of free software, also encouraged speakers to soft-pedal the issue of software freedom. Given this drawback, Stallman would stick with the term free software.
Being angry about it takes effort and, frankly, most people don't seem to care about their rights as long as it doesn't effect them personally in an obvious way.
Sustained, enduring action is needed to get anywhere.
If you're looking for a startup idea, this is one: to check that what the manual says about outgoing data is true, and to what degree they compromise privacy. Decorate with 1-5 stars ratings. The ultimate goal is to have companies pay you to test their products.
However right now not enough people care about this, but it might change quickly. So starting it now might be a coin flip.
That reminds me of a comment from when smart TVs were discovered to be sending filenames and other info, since it was sent in plaintext: "If they had used HTTPS, this might not have been discovered."
The most important thing to realise is that security can work for you, and it can also work against you. It's not only a "right to eavesdrop", but users will need to maintain control over their devices if they want the former. This is somewhat related to the War on General Purpose Computing, and what I think is the biggest dilemma is that users need to have a certain level of knowledge in order to understand what their devices are doing and control them; but many don't want to; they only see the advantages and don't care about how something works, whether it "phones home" or what kind of data it's sending, as long as it makes something in their lives easier.
News stories about how smart TVs phone home have circulated, and yet AFAIK people are still buying them in great quantities. They just don't care. They are outraged and shocked when the news appears, but shortly afterwards they carry on as if nothing happened. That, I think, is the scariest part.