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Software Freedom Means Control. Control Means More Than Just Privacy.
Someone has just written about privacy and control, stating that:
The problem is that the word "privacy" is diluted and mean different things to different people. Instead of "privacy" we really should be talking about "control". Framed in this context, we can more concretely talk about why it's important to protect your digital identity.
For me privacy is not the primary driver, because like you mentioned, it doesn't make sense for the common folk and doesn't actually fall into people's threat model (journalists on the other hand should care). I am personally motivated by the notion of "control". Can someone else meditate how I experience the world and what information I consume? Whether that is censoring, influencing how much time I have to spend watching ads or which ads I am allowed to watch. Can they influence how I vote? Watch the talk In Defense of Privacy for a more on this.
Many of the convenient tools we use today (email, messaging, social media, password manager) are essential for daily life but they also yield control over to organizations (Google, Facebook, Amazon) that don't necessarily have our best interest in mind [1][2].
All of this begins at the fundamental ideas behind GNU. Who controls the computer and computing? If it's not the users, then it is somebody else. There's a lot more to be lost than one's privacy if someone else controls your computer/computing. █