The privacy wars are about to get a whole lot worse

And while his/any steps aren't enough to mitigate all tracking, they do mitigate a lot of tracking, which is far better than doing nothing.

You can't. If you want to have the security of a democracy, you have to accept the inefficiencies of a democracy (as far as the power structures are concerned, it's pretty analogous to the difference between a dictatorship and a democracy).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxLJExWk9GE

He mentions that we are past the point of being a luddite much mattering. Much of your activity can be inferred through activity of your friends, family, and those around you.

None of the little tricks or habits I listed above leads to a "marginal existence" or makes you a "hermit". They serve to cut out the middleman, or to minimize my data trail, given that I still want the benefits of technology. Why should Google/Gmail be allowed to analyze my communications with my friends or colleagues, esp. if I'm not even using Gmail? Why should Netflix be allowed to record what I watch, when, and in what order? Why should Facebook be notified that I read article X, esp. since I am not even on their network?!

What you said therefore makes no sense to me, it's a false dichotomy.

And before you congratulate yourself publicly on your own "civic and human engagement", consider that even just ten years ago people managed to be engaged without apprising Google, Facebook, et al. about their every impulse, incessantly. Yes, you could watch a DVD, read a book, or talk to your parents and no Evil Corp. was silently adding that to its Stasi dossier about you and your predilections. Somehow life went on anyway, and nobody called you a "hermit, intellectually speaking" for that. Talk about resetting expectations, jeez…

- Electric, gas, sewer, water, trash utilities that you basically can't live without.

- Thinking of going rustic? Better not own the land in your own name. Most places, parcels are easy to find online.

- Property management companies

- Sites that facilitate rental applications

- Your 100+ year old bank

- Credit card and auto lenders

- Employers and job application websites

- Cell phone networks

- AT&T, Comcast, and all but a handful of indie ISPs

- Insurance companies

- Retail stores and gas stations with your loyalty programs

- People who regularly enter your property like building maintenance, trash collectors (often spies for the municipal building inspector), etc.

- Cops and neighbors who can observe your daily routine

- Vital records offices that know who your families are

Hell, just yesterday Verizon gave my mom a $20/mo discount to plug something into her OBD II port. WTF else can that be for?

Facebook and Google are the kindest to your privacy. Your data is a closely guarded asset, protected by competent engineers, used to tailor your experience and show ads. All these other entities, many of which you basically have to do business with to lead a contemporary life even without social media and smartphones, know who you are, where you live, what you drive, who you care about, how much money and credit you have and how you use it, and they do not even try to keep these data in house. When the government or a PI is looking for someone, that's where they look first - to data bought, volunteered, interviewed, and stolen from every kind of company except modern tech, often through well defined and documented interfaces like LexisNexis and the credit bureaus.

Luddite doesn't do much. You have to sublet informally (usually illegal), get paid in cash (employers don't like to do this unless they are illegal businesses) under a false name (fraud), never use banking or credit, not own, rent, register, or insure any cars, buy single ride subway tickets (more expensive), and have a forgettable face (genetics?) etc. People can't even manage this when their lives depend on it. Fugitives are almost always caught these days - this is how. It's nearly impossible to avoid leaking your biographical data and physical location.

Modern tech might give more insight into your mind, I suppose, but deeper privacy than that is very hard - actors in a capitalist system are starved for information about their counterparties and work hard to get it.