There is this common narrative I see all the time, implying that we as individuals are empowered to choose and manifest our own destiny, and this comes up often in privacy discussions.

Don’t like Facebook’s privacy nightmares? Just don’t use Facebook!

Don’t like personalized ads? I remember a popular post on reddit saying “if your ad interrupts my YouTube video, I will hate your product”.

Don’t like Google chrome hegemony? Just use Firefox!

And while I agree that we should strive to do that, the battle doesn’t end here. Facebook has shadow accounts for people who never signed up. Google chrome keeps it’s hegemony despite people on the Internet advocating Firefox day and night. And ads continue to be extremely profitable despite you “hating the product” because it interrupted your YouTube video.

Even worse: even if you “hate the product”, you now already know it. You now know they product exists, and possibly whatever they wanted you to know about it. The reality is that these companies own your eyes. They control what shows up on your screen. And even if you hate it, they control what you end up learning.

the reality is that our individual resistance is very far from enough

I am not saying it is completely futile. It is a step in the right direction. But the only effective solution is organized action. We, alone, cannot achieve much. Unless we organize our resistance against privacy violations, we will continue to live through this privacy nightmare.

  • CubbyTustard@reddthat.com
    254·
    1 year ago

    Man I have been on the internet since before you could even pay to have a dialup account. I hate ads so I just block them. Via DNS currently which is working well. It breaks google serps. It breaks youtube. I often can’t read articles people link.

    who fucking cares, I don’t want to see ads so I don’t see ads. It isn’t really that hard. Hulu started showing ads even if you paid so as i canceled hulu. If netflix shows ads I will cancel netflix.

    I think trying to get rid of advertising is tilting at windmills, as much as I agree with you there’s so many more pressing issues to worry about. If you don’t like ads just avoid them. Who cares if facebook has a ‘shadow profile’ on you? how does that affect your life?

    I feel completely empowered as an individual online because my eyes only see what my fingers direct them to, and when it offends my eyes i go somewhere else.