I know data privacy is important and I know that big corporations like Meta became powerful enough to even manipulate elections using our data.
But, when I talk to people in general, most seem to not worry because they “have nothing to hide”, and most are only worried about their passwords, banking apps and not much else.
So, why should people worry about data privacy even if they have “nothing to hide”?
I’m curious how many people actually think that, although it’s unknowable of course.
You’re right in that a huge portion of people would certainly make that assumption.
However, i would argue that the fediverse & open source in general is more “privacy respecting” because we can have a discussion about exactly what is disclosed and why it is disclosed.
In practice, using the web without leaking information about our preferences is pretty much impossible. “Privacy” (on and off the web) is never about “no disclosure”, it’s always about what needs to be disclosed, why it needs to be disclosed, and whether I personally am comfortable disclosing in exchange for whatever service I am seeking.