I think you overestimate the average American’s aptitude for both understanding the ramifications of such spying, and to understand how to go about seeking out alternatives. Joe/Susie Random doesn’t have a clue about how what makes their phone screen work, only that it’s a tool to do things. Social media especially is so ingrained in modern life that you can become ostracized for not using it (even jobs sometimes see not having SM as a red flag). And even SM aside, what options are there (aside from FOSS, which does require a certain technical aptitude to adapt)? It used to be that you could customize android via roms to get away from it, but with these latest changes happening, even that’s becoming difficult to avoid big tech’s dominance. But again, it takes a certain level of know-how to seek out and implement such an alternative. And for the layman that doesn’t really have a clue about how this stuff work nor the bandwidth to learn it, i can’t entirely place the blame on them. The focus should entirely be on Apple and Google for strangling the competition that renders the options limited. I’m all for placing the blame on the individual when warranted, but we need to remember that merely by being on Lemmy we have a bit more technical understanding than most, and that must be taken into account for how we view these things. Many of the people out there aren’t inherently lazy or stupid, they just have different understandings and priorities in life, and we should be looking at these companies and also regulators for their failures of responsibility.
I think you overestimate the average American’s aptitude for both understanding the ramifications of such spying, and to understand how to go about seeking out alternatives. Joe/Susie Random doesn’t have a clue about how what makes their phone screen work, only that it’s a tool to do things. Social media especially is so ingrained in modern life that you can become ostracized for not using it (even jobs sometimes see not having SM as a red flag). And even SM aside, what options are there (aside from FOSS, which does require a certain technical aptitude to adapt)? It used to be that you could customize android via roms to get away from it, but with these latest changes happening, even that’s becoming difficult to avoid big tech’s dominance. But again, it takes a certain level of know-how to seek out and implement such an alternative. And for the layman that doesn’t really have a clue about how this stuff work nor the bandwidth to learn it, i can’t entirely place the blame on them. The focus should entirely be on Apple and Google for strangling the competition that renders the options limited. I’m all for placing the blame on the individual when warranted, but we need to remember that merely by being on Lemmy we have a bit more technical understanding than most, and that must be taken into account for how we view these things. Many of the people out there aren’t inherently lazy or stupid, they just have different understandings and priorities in life, and we should be looking at these companies and also regulators for their failures of responsibility.