Sure it would, everyone would just be like that person in my OP, writing on an ancient laptop running an obscure OS and doing everything command line only, posting everything under a new account in a separate container so that “when the data is bought and sold” no one can possibly tell who you are.
Connection and interaction has been at massive odds with my fear that lack of digital privacy is dangerous. In short, no, I’m not going to cut off the two people I still talk to because they won’t download an app. I won’t even refuse to be in a photo (and the concern isn’t even and excess of “privacy”, I just hate having my picture taken), I have no business fighting with a team of people to not use some “less private” app. And refusing to use a lot of bigger apps or something like forums means making it even harder to meet people.
At the same time I see a lot of hate for the “normals” who won’t learn to code or download a complex, unfamiliar app into a specialized container just to talk to their one “privacy conscious” friend. It’s pathetic and stupid and people should get over it, “oh what a sad state of the world, that people value tangible convenience over abstract principles” is the impression I see. Like a person should seriously cut off their family or all of their friends if they won’t use…whatever is considered a private chat app because apparently everything is bad. (look what posts got all the upvotes). It genuinely scares me how many posts I’ve seen, on Reddit and here and related forums, of people cutting people off because one or the other won’t use some app and thinks the other is stupid for their choice.
In my head, at the moment, most of my privacy concerns are almost more about what I post. The venue doesn’t matter. Trauma dumping on Matrix is still trauma dumping, for example.
And the fear will still remain that if I’m not being some ultra-knowledgeable privacy enthusiast locking myself away entirely, I’m doing something wrong.