[snakepit]

In many ways, we're past the point of no return. So-called ubiquitous technical surveillance is largely the norm, often encroaching by design beyond the boundaries of expected decency.

Informational terrorism, a dysphemism that describes the manner by which certain data is abused to "re-rank content" for a "personalized experience," is encoded into the DNA of certain large tech companies.

[heresie-dabord]

> we're past the point of no return

The ideal would have been a security-first (privacy-first) industry and supply chain. The ideal never was going to happen, anymore than the early educational ideals of the television industry.

Ergo we are not past the point of no return. That point never existed. We are right where we should expect to be, with most people victimised by the industry and the supply chain, and with a small percentage of people working in security/privacy education to mitigate unsafe practices.

Seatbelts and airbags exist. Smoking is banned in many public settings. It took a senseless amount of carnage to achieve these measures.

We just haven't achieved the requisite amount of privacy carnage. Yet.

[lisbbb]

Yes. The only question left is when does the terror begin? And it will--it will be our own governments clamping down on all of us. The digital norm globally will be China under the CCP. That is the future for all of us unless we turn it off, but we won't because humans are stupid.

[pcthrowaway]

The terrorism is already occurring, it's merely exported to other people

[chneu]

Eh, defeatist attitude. It isn't that hard to anonymize and obfuscate your data.

The issue is everyone is willing to trade convenience for security.

The point of no return is an individual choice.

[hkt]

> The point of no return is an individual choice.

This is largely the attitude that led to this in the first place. This is about failures of messaging, campaigning, and organising. It is a lack of democratic engagement that directly stems from the idea of individual choice being supreme over everything.

[snakepit]

This doesn't reflect the current reality. Tech companies acquire questionable third-party data without consent and exploit it however they see fit.