Facebook and Google have both grown so fat and entrenched on industrial-scale abuse of privacy that real change appears unrealistic. That we are forever bound to have our privacy violated for the profits of targeted ads. But remember "it always seems impossible until it's done".
There is another internet possible. One that isn't being choked by Google and Facebook. It is a political choice to indulge these behemoths their monstrous appetite for our private data. We are biased towards complacency, but we need not be.
This is why we need faith in collective action more than ever. We need faith in the possibility of government to represent that collective action more than ever. Starving "the beast" through apathy or otherwise only binds us forever in darkness.
The impetus for collective action is born through individual rebellions, but it is not sustained by such. We cannot make systemic change one person at the time. We can motivate it, kickstart it, but ultimately only collective action seals the new deal.
The internet is far too important to hand over to a couple of feudal tech lords, but that's just what we've done so far. We've traded our privacy and our dignity for combs and mirrors. Now that we know that this trade was done in bad faith, it's time to renegotiate the deal.
Every ad you see that was targeted using personal data is a privacy violation. Renting out your personal data is no better than outright selling it. Facebook and Google make more money than anyone through this regime of abuse. Thus they must face the bulk of our scrutiny.
