I think the average person just simply doesn't care about their privacy.
In some of the music communities I'm in the content creators are already telling their userbase to go follow them on threads. They're all talking about some kind of beef between Elon and Mark and the possibility of a boxing match... Mark was right to call the people he's leaching off of fucking idiots.
I guess I don't care about lots of data things normally. Honestly at this point I care more about the Elon V Zuck fight.
There is no semblance of privacy anymore. Most people need a bank account or a credit card. Boom someone has (some of) your data.
In the US, at that point, credit agencies also have (some of) your data.
Even in something like Lemmy, someone could easily scrape all the data about what you post/do/etc. At some level almost everything you do is public to some extent.
Edit since I thought of something else: Even if you drive in a big city: something is tracking your license plate. In NYC they do it for EZ-Pass, and in the Bay Area they do it for Fast-Trak.
Didn't the Equifax leak include people's data that never used their service? Like damn, is Zuck going to learn something new about me that every other company hasn't written down already?
Yep! The credit agencies are very likely to get your data when applying for a credit card or loan or etc. So they have basically everyone at some point. Honestly the only other info Zuck has on me is random photos from 10 years ago.
Let's not downplay the value of that photo. Stuff like that is a critical competent component for building AI systems strong enough to visually identify people under a variety of conditions. It's the keystone to a total surveillance state, which itself is the gateway to things like the social credit system used in China.
Those AI systems will happen either way. Take the EZ-Pass example. It wouldn't surprise me if they want to use facial recognition to cross reference the driver with the plates on the car to find a kidnapper.
I understand that this stuff could be used for.. evil .. but acting like they can be stopped from being developed is like saying no country should make nukes. We still make nukes.. and this tech. The only ones who don't do it are the ones who fall behind.
You can slow it down maybe but you can't stop it.
People say the same thing about AI like chatgpt: we should slow it down or pause it till yadayada. Anyone who 'pauses' is just hiding results longer.
Honestly living in a world with great facial recognition could have benefits. Would be cool to be able to shop without needing my wallet or phone and have it charged to me automatically based off my face. My Google Photos has facial recognition and I think it's a great feature.. I wish it worked even better.