It's about control and regaining control of your browsing habits, namely giving users the capability of opting out of global surveillance networks.
Many advertisers screamed (and are still screaming) bloody murder over Do Not Track settings being on by default, and this is a message to send to them: your screams are irrelevant and you have no right to track me.
I have control of my browsing habits. That's my point - I'm not terribly worried about if companies see what I do, so it doesn't change my behavior. Thus, I don't see how this point shows that tracking makes my life worse.
Are you saying that it is ok to globally disregard privacy, profile users, sell their data/profile without them knowing or getting a part of this profit because it doesn't make your life worse ?
I don't think I said anything about global disregard. I asked why I should personally care. It seems like there are a lot of people trying to tell me I should care, but I did not once say that others should not care.
Well the reasoning is quite simple actually, if you care for freedom then you should care for privacy. Without privacy there's no freedom possible.
Maybe read some of the many posts around about privacy and freedom and rebuttal of the "I don't do anything wrong so I don't have to hide" argument:
you could start with the schneier's blog: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/05/the_value_of_...
But let me try to make a point of why you should personally care even though you don't know or understand why. This is a case of closing the barn door after the horse is gone, if you later learn the hard way you should have cared and go the extra step of protecting your data, you couldn't go back and get your data back.
And the sad reality is that if you have to learn this way, it means that history has indeed repeated itself again and you're enjoying living under a tyranny.
Well the reasoning is quite simple actually, if you care for freedom then you should care for privacy.
Sorry, but this sounds like the cr*p touted around by politicians and over zealous "patriots", along the lines of "if you don't support the war then you are not a patriot and therefore must support the terrorists".
Despite what most on HN would like to believe, outside of the tech community most people don't care about their privacy being invaded, and the OP is entitled to his opinion of not caring just as you (and I) are too overly caring. I believe that is the true definition of freedom, to be able to make ones own choice?
And if I am? Everyone has varying degrees of privacy preference. Who's to say that any end of the spectrum is wrong or right? Mine just happens to fall on the more liberal end.
You're right, there is a spectrum of preference. But just because some are ok with it, doesn't mean all of us. Why encapsulate everyone under the same policy of track everything?
On the Do Not Track, I think turning it on by default is a bad idea. It gives companies no incentive to follow it and abide by it. (Yes, they have no reason to abide by it right now either). There is no law that says they have to abide by it, but it seems to me they might be more willing to abide by DNT if those that are tracking conscious were to turn it on, rather than it to be turned on by itself. They wouldn't lose as many people to track if it was opt in instead of opt out.
As i mentioned to another commentor, I don't think we should encapsulate everyone under the same policies nor do I think everyone should feel the same. I believe it's OK for people to want a lot of privacy. However, through this whole NSA discussion, I've seen a large amount of discussion on HN basically saying that anyone who doesn't desire a high level of privacy is wrong or ignorant. That's certainly what Zuider's comment about the possibility of me saying "I'm not doing anything wrong..." asserts. I think it's more ignorant to believe that everyone needs to have the same values and beliefs as you regarding privacy.
Many advertisers screamed (and are still screaming) bloody murder over Do Not Track settings being on by default, and this is a message to send to them: your screams are irrelevant and you have no right to track me.