Fair enough, but there's one flaw to your argument. You repeat a few times that this gathering of data is "without consent", that we "don't have a choice" and "it's not up to" us. You absolutely have a choice. There are switches, options and opt-out functions on almost every form of data gathering out there. Those that don't have it simply state that they are gathering the data - if you don't like it then don't use it. Nothing has changed; in fact if anything it's improved. Can you imagine the uproar if Vodacom suddenly said "We're using humans to connect your calls, they are able to listen to those calls and are not required to sign an NDA"? Well that was the case up until about 1970; the last manual switchboard ceased operation in 1991...
Yes, companies are comprised of people and those people want to make profit. That's the way the world works. The only way a company can successfully make profit is to provide goods or a service that other companies cannot provide or provide them in a better way than other companies can, and it's the people who decide which one is better. If google watches me sit in traffic at the same robots every afternoon, tells CocaCola, and they stick a Coke salesman at those lights then it's a win win. That's an extremely simple example but that's how information sharing fundamentally works.
As for a police state, that's a question of whether we as a species can self-regulate our free will to avoid self harm and harm to others. The existence of a legal system points to the fact that we are unable to do so and must therefore be monitored, regulated and punished when necessary. Occasionally a leader will come along who either pushes this concept too far (Mao & Co) or chooses to place himself above it (Zuma?). This isn't the place to start debating how these leaders come to power, but the fact is it's not the norm, and as long our leaders have a modicum of sense then we can trust that they won't suddenly turn around and jail everyone who's turned left too many times.
What we can, or rather should be able to trust in is that the existing legal system will turn around and investigate that guy googling how to kill someone or how to build a car bomb. Should his privacy be protected because you're worried about a totalitarian government coming into power one day?
I think the conversation is not the everyday occurrence of private data collection-- but that the entire method and "experience" of data collection as we know it has evolved into such a norm that people perceive it as just "the way things are". Not to get overtly tin-foil hat, but freedoms are not taken away overnight or granted overnight, but are slowly built up and eroded away, through legislation, culture, economics, activists etc.
Let's approach this as a thought exercise: Try to think of the best way to gain viable marketable data from someone you don't know at all. Would your strategy be to constantly harass them or threaten them with some such law or stipulation requiring them to hand over their info? Or would you create an environment in which they feel safe or even obliged to hand over their information? I think we know the answer to that. So is it so hard to believe that this safe feeling you have is merely through extensive "normalisation" of data collection in spheres of life?
Consent or not, choice is not really a choice when you cannot survive in modern day living without consenting for your personal data to be used in order to buy something, create something or even to get paid.
For example, the choice to do FNB payments online to non-beneficiary accounts became a lot more invasive. It now requires the need to have a smartphone and a network provider: case in point, OTPs and the FNB app now. Before FNB only required me to have a number to send an SMS to; now the app can record location data, my contacts list, microphone and a few other things; all in order to simply do the same thing I wanted to do; pay for something. It's the small things, that all eventually add up into a mountain of data that although you consented to, provides you with little alternatives. It's now required that you to have the FNB app and account populated with information that they can use internally, or sell to marketers, data analysts, call centers etc. It's not that they can or will; but
the option is there, and you have no real decision in whether or not it will be shared now or 30 years down the line
Yes, this is all a choice based world, but can you see how they integrate it all into modern day living, cultivating a sense that "this is normal, more of my data is needed to deliver XYZ service". Try to live a healthy modern day life (as a middle to upper class person) without these sorts of things and it becomes difficult. Just because something presents itself as a choice does not meant its a choice with an equally weighted alternative -- it's not really a choice at all. Just look at how frustrated some older people experience these new fangled services they now "need" in order to operate and participate in the world around them? This is not meant for me to come across as a privacy nut, but just to illuminate that the companies, banks, governments etc who want to extract profit or compliance from all spheres of your life will structure the world and their services in such a way in order to maximise the aim of making you a profitable consumer/citizen and use your data to that end. As Gouhan said, it's being made so that you have no choice but to share your data with governments and private entities.
As for social engineering, that sort of attack thrives on obtaining personal information in order to backdoor their way into your life. The new scam doing the rounds (not sure if its hit here en mass), are un-authorized sim swaps in which an attacker manages to convince the service provider to port your account to a new number they control and proceed to take over your email, social networks in order to extract cash or even more information on people in your networks. To even begin this process, attackers need to know your email, ID, addresses etc etc, all information neatly contained on databases of your ISP, bank or even an online Dildo store you shopped at that one time.
This all can be summarized into a neat little saying: Information is Power. Information is merely data, but those who control that information can do incredibly powerful things with it for their own benefit. It's as simple as that; we do not control our online data. If you want to get a glimpse of the dystopian versions of a world consumed by the effects of privacy infringement, please watch some Black Mirror episodes
