If companies can’t protect the information they collect now, (a large portion of it gathered without consent), how are they going to protect even more information; and where can I opt out?..smh

If they did not collect any information, they would not have any information to give when they are served a subpoena.

It still boggles my mind how paying for ads became acceptable. Not only is the company making money from the advertisers for the ad space, they now get to make money off the population for viewing the ads. This is a crazy world we live in.

I’m pretty sure that Amazon, google, etc do far more nefarious shit behind the scenes in terms of tracking/fingerprinting you and collecting data to sell

You even get to pay more and more for this privilege…smh

I am not a content creator and do not upload anything. My use would just be as a consumer.

As a consumer, I will not use YT simply because of ads and the way they have made removing ads without a premium subscription so ridiculously difficult and time consuming.

Imo, having ads thrown in your face when you pause it, is reason enough not to use again.

From a non techy perspective, having what is used and installed being secure is a big one. I am new to Linux Mint. Mostly user friendly until something gets corrupted or suddenly can not be verified.

Looking for why is not always simple, and there are some explanations/instructions easier to understand than others.

I preface most of my searches with Linux mint (whatever I am searching for) for dummies. This helps some.

Then they suddenly started helping Microsoft exclusively, which has been criticized many times for being a monopoly,

Iirc, Microsoft has 49% of it. OpenAI is having another round where it is speculated Apple will contribute along with Microsoft again.

Wasn’t Altman in charge of World Coin where he wanted everyone to scan their eyes for money to encourage a universal ID/wage?

Public transportation does not operate in the middle of nowhere where the closest store is more than half an hour away.

Why will they not use F-Droid?

I can’t stress strongly enough how badly I am opposed to ads.

Not much to be done with a work machine, but for personal use, I believe the more people moving away from Windows the better.

Microsoft believes if they worsen the enshitification of Windows 10, more people will just upgrade to 11 quicker.

I decided to move to Linux and my other family went with Macbooks.

they don’t care and can’t be bothered to look for a better way.

This implies they are fine with it by tacit agreement.

My jaw dropped when I saw that. Not sure how many people are aware if it.

Samsung is also trying to make its ACR data more valuable for ad targeting, including through a deal signed in December with analytics firm Experian.

This should add to their profits.

People deserve better and should expect/demand better.

Average users will not have the knowledge or patience for work arounds.

Imo, the larger problem seems to be the majority of users appear to be fine with ads and data collection just to watch a movie or series.

We know of no rigorous study showing that toughened digital marketing privacy policies produced tangible economic benefits for anyone, let alone lower-income consumers.

You do not need a study to see the numerous headlines of companies having their data breached of your personal information they did not even have permission to collect.

I suppose the significant amount of money spent on fines, repairs, lawsuits, ransomware do not count.

Paying for ads is a terrible idea companies have forced into the narrative, without users really caring.

I choose not to pay for ads.

People have become accustomed to the corporate and government invasion of their lives little by little. This will most likely continue until it is too late.

A sad world indeed.