infuziSporg [e/em/eir]

my roommates watching me put espresso in the houseplants

The reason why they engage in this level of data collection is to be able to market it. The purpose of marketing it is to squeeze more money out of you, either from individualized pricing, or by convincing you to buy things you don’t need.

The average person is absolutely losing out, with everything they do. It’s a zero sum game; when they are harvesting your data they are harvesting you. Their financial gain is your financial loss, and the planet’s material loss as well.

I think this is a much better argument than “we can all put our small efforts together to make these large entities a little less menacing”.

“Nothing to hide? What about your password? Do you leave your front door unlocked? Do you use the bathroom without closing the door? If you have nothing to hide, what would your reaction be to a stranger rummaging around in your papers?”

Everyone employs secrecy because our society and economic system incentivize taking advantage of other people. Lawyers will often advise regular people to not talk to police beyond a bare minimum, because everybody commits small offenses, and the enforcement is incentivized to find false positives.

Bonus:
“Do I want criminals walking our streets? They already do, and half of them are in gangs that wear light blue uniforms.”
“The people with the most anti-social behaviors and who have harmed others the most are the ones who are allowed to keep running society.”

Our current public safety approach does not prevent crimes before they happen. Even if you made 90% of people police officers, there would still be crime. Sure, you can catch one offender here and there, but call me back when there’s actually a substantial rise in everyone’s well-being. Roughly 40% of taxes go to law and order, and as a fully-employed person, I find it hard to imagine losing more than that amount to crime.

I was once assaulted basically right in front of a security camera. I don’t really care whether or not they locked up who did it, that won’t make a difference to me or anyone else.