I don't think that striking high chords, historical and political, is all that useful when talking to people about these things. They tend not to take it seriously or at best just file it mentally with other bad things in the world that they have little agency about. Of course, you may already get the broad societal ramifications if you're already in the privacy camp, but perhaps it's not a very effective entry point.<p>(It's another thing if we're talking about politics, not about individual choices. In pure politics big picture arguments, like "what if there'll be a dictatorship", might be more proper).<p>I would try to frame it, for individual people, as a question of quality and technical savvyness. If a supposedly hi-tech company behaves like a scammy phone marketing operation selling you garbage bundled with hidden subscriptions, we should treat is as such. They <i>should</i> be able to treat you seriously, i.e. give you good quality, reliable products for the money, without scheming behind your back and siphoning all the data they can. Their business model should be sound without this. If they don't, it's just an inferior product and you're being exploited.<p>A related point is that I don't like products being sold solely on privacy. The tone should be more, we provide you an excellent thing (inside our capital constraints) and of course, it also respects your data.<p>Currently I see a tendency among people to be more-or-less aware of privacy invasions and their potential, but to think that's ultimately a fact of life and they'd have to be some crazy nerds to do something about it. The thinking should be more that they're using low quality stuff and hurting themselves. (I'm not saying that you should now go and antagonize people in your social bubble, just that it may be a communication strategy if there's an opportunity.)<p>Besides, trying to defend ourselves from the future state will be probably always perceived as kooky. Better do something about politics directly if you're in a moderately free country. It's more about rogue actors inside the companies and in the broad underworld. There was a time when people installed the damn antivirus.