Against even the remote possibility that someone wants to help you...
Usually, someone who wants to help you, already knows you, or who you are.
saving you shopping time, and possibly disappointment? Keep you informed about what's important to you, and what interests you?
Companies are out to make money, and make efficient how they make money off of you. Some help you, but the companies that are helping you, are providing good services for the price, not figuring out how to take your every dollar, to give you as little value as possible, not just when you object.
I've done nothing wrong, I've got nothing to hide
I have nothing to hide, and I don't have much going on in my life, either...
Yes, I've said something like that before. I thought I can be completely honest, because I haven't done anything wrong. Then I learned that people will make bad assumptions, based on their own lack of worth, because they don't have the values or principles you have. It doesn't matter how good you are or think you are, or your opinion, most of the population doesn't bother anyone. You have to worry about less than 1% of the population, who you are lucky if you don't come across. And they don't think like the normal person.
statistically, and effectively, protecting the people who do have something to hide by offering them a crowd to blend into.
This is how I mildly feel about tor. The only people who belong there are journalists, those living in oppressive countries, and the like, or those doing what they're not supposed to. Others who use it aren't intending to blend in with hiding around the wrong crowd, but out of ignorance. If want to use a proxy, every now and then, use a proxy, but not a proxy like tor. They hold your data for about month, then they are meant to delete it. So, that's meant for if someone does something wrong, they can't hide that.
Look, from some of the retorts you've made, none taken, and I can still learn from your point of view. It doesn't bother me that the government gets metadata which was used for preventing crimes. What bothers me is criminal organizations like Wikileaks exploiting to harm Democracy under some fake guise. What bothers me is how companies like Facebook will psychologically profile you, to be used against you strategically, not for doing anything wrong, but for monetary gain. People have been profiled, for what lies to tell, what false promises to make, what people want and it was used against the American people. Psychological profiling is dangerous, because it's not about if you did something wrong, it's about, what can 1% (on the scale of psychopathy or greed) of the population exploit the rest of the population. Right now I see it as a case of persuading, in the future I see it as a case of exploitation. What rules will they set for credit cards, so that you won't quickly notice how they're cheating you: you can't beat a computer at chess. Do you really have a choice, or do you think you have a choice, if a company brought up what you wanted, based on how it psychologically analyzed you?
Here's two extreme cases: look at the past serial murders in Gaineville. The community did nothing wrong, they aren't special either, but all that took is for some psycho from Louisiana to learn about how idealistic that place was for others, then go there. No one definitely wants their address or community going out like that for that to happen for some cynical reason.
The other case is exploitation: someone will extort money or worse, because of pictures that were private. They try to extort celebrities for money all the time. Criminals even try to exploit people to go into slavery, or they will put their photos out. In which case, it's better to let the world see naked pictures, than be subject to that. I don't have to worry about those, but those are real case scenarios.
