Privacy is a foundational right. Without it inviduals suffer from the imbalanced power dynamic of the states resources.

Because without privacy you can't be a proper human being. You need privacy in order to have the safe space to develop, to dare try, to explore without the constant judgement of others. If you can't be a proper human being, can you genuinely have democracy?

It's both a per-requisite for humanity and what the political system that is often considered as the most just.

That's why I care.

Traditionally, people like myself get killed due to bad opsec.

Similar to you, but I also hate the advertising industry with a burning passion and want to deprive them of any and all data possible.

I care about privacy for the same reason you do. Actually I don't care about my personal privacy bacause I've always been careful to not share too much with big tech companies, but I refuse to use products from amazon, meta, alphabet, apple, or microsoft (outside of work hardware/software) because of how they abuse their position of power over the poor.

I don't think society on a local, national, or world level is past persecution for stupid reasons, and I fall into a number of categories that certain people might go after me for if they got into power. I want to make that difficult for them.

I don't like being misinterpreted.

Similar to your experience, I've seen several large governments and organizations mishandle or mismanage user data by accident or on purpose many times with little or no recompense. If nobody can do it right they should either make it all publicly transparent for everyone or not store it at all.

Misinformation, not using accounts or accounts with incorrect information, multiple accounts, etc counter ops seem prudent at this point as the information system and monitoring apparatus of some of the most powerful governments and corporations in human history remains largely unchecked.

Privacy is an important right to protect and value because of the damage that can and will be done when groups hold personal information (financial, medical, behavior patterns, etc) and either sell it without explicit consent or leak it because they have no expectation of risk or loss if they don't protect it.

Tl;Dr The oldest rules of the Internet are don't believe everything you read and don't dox yourself.

It all kinda boils down to the Cambridge Analytica scandal for me. Harvesting people's locations and data, accessing and logging our daily lives is what facilitates mass manipulation of the public's opinion, therefore distorting their view of the world and killing freedom of thought. GAFAM and others are specialists in controlling their users. I ultimately don't want to be profiled, controlled and/or rail-roaded in any aspect of my life.

Because in real life I don't like people looking over my shoulder at everything I do and digital snooping is the same (or worse).

The same reason I care about a working democracy. You can't have one without the other.

Same reason I shit with the door closed; I've got nothing to hide, but it's none of your business regardless.

Do you people sniff into your stuffs? No. So why do you allow companies to make profit on?

And we need the anonymous part too.

Privacy means hiding our legitimate stuffs to others than could spy on. In this way, privacy is a big family that needs anonymity and security to work well

EDIT : Anonymity and security are not different than privacy, they are a way to achieve it

If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.

From Cardinal Richelieu

Combine this with the fact that entities which have access to our data rarely have our best interest in heart. Governments change, the political climate changes, and people change. What’s honest and just today may not be next decade.

It's a pillar of democracy to protect the autonomy of the people.

If you have ever had a psycho (or two) stalk you online and/or in the real world, you will understand why privacy and anonymity is important.

If you have time for an answer in audio form the CBC has some ideas.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

Although it is physically impossible for the single guard to observe all the inmates' cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched motivates them to act as though they are all being watched at all times.

that's not a world i want to live in...

It's curious that you claim privacy and anonymity are clearly differentiable but didn't bother to define either of them. Is your claim accurate? We have no idea, because we don't know what you're talking about.

George Orwell, Philip K. Dick, and Corey Doctorow already covered the basics, and two of those authors did so decades ago. Why are you asking this question now? What is it that you want to hear that they didn't already say? Or are you asking us whether we've read those authors?

Let's flip this question. Why do you think an organisation should get my data?

Are they reputable? Are they secure? Are they domiciled in my country and follow the laws of my country?

To me it's much more of an ethical concern than a practical concern. Digital privacy is a human right (privacy is listed under Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). The only immediate ways in which I can uphold this right and contribute to a fairer society is through exercising my right to vote and making ethically superior choices as a consumer. So for me, it's less about avoiding the government or big tech for practical reasons like surveillance and scams driven by data breaches (though of course these are still valid concerns for many) and more about supporting those who I believe are doing the right thing (or are at least an improvement).

If we don't support the better alternatives then they will never grow enough to achieve mainstream success and challenge the current establishment. I know some people here hate Proton, but that is a great example of a privacy-focused tech company which has grown significantly because of consumer support - to the point where it has a full suite of products that do a much better job of competing with heavyweights like Google than a tiny, unsupported startup would have had. A company like that might not even have survived without its early adopters, and then the next one to come along would be even less likely to receive investment in the early stages due to the history of failure within the sector. To me, being privacy conscious is all about being part of a positive movement; supporting people and companies that are doing the right thing and refusing to accept problematic behaviours and practices I see in the world.

I know for some people, particularly minorities, privacy is a real world concern and I fully acknowledge that but I think sometimes we do ourselves a disservice by trying to sell it to everyone in such a scary way. Humans are not very good at perceiving or responding to threat until there is actual undisputable evidence of it in their immediate surroundings. So when you tell these people that they'll lose all their money to scammers or that their government is going to unjustly target them they don't actually believe you or take you seriously. They think you are insane. The better sell, I think, is to show people that this is a positive movement and worldwide community that they can be a part of.

EDIT: I was going to add this yesterday but forgot. I don't know if anyone here has seen The Social Dilemma - the big reason that documentary went viral was not just because it gave a very detailed and scary overview of all the problems with surveillance capitalism and the attention economy, but also because it finished on quite an optimistic note. They told viewers "we know this is all really scary for you but we have smart people working tirelessly to change things and build a movement that we want you to be a part of". It left people feeling engaged, like they still had some level of agency over the situation instead of paralysed with fear and just totally abandoning all hope.

• Feeling clean
• Not being exploited
• Minimalism
• Less power drain
• Less data sent
• Freedom
• Everything works better and faster
• I hate spying because they can
• To be honest also because most people don't care

The only con is convenience.

i don't want anyone i work with to be able to find out what kind of porn i'm into

I work in the public health sector.

And I am trans. Need more reasons?