There seems to be a fundamental dichotomy on HN that is either intellectually dishonest, or the result of hyperbolic reasoning. Everyone accepts that services have costs, and so someone has to pay for them. They're either paid for by user fees, paid for by ads, or paid for by charity (e.g. Wikipedia)
Every time a publisher converts to user fees (paywall), people react angrily. Yet, people complain loudly over ads too, and others complain loudly over ad tracking. Now, there's not necessarily overlap between these groups, but there must be some. So either people want to get away with paying nothing (one form of dishonestly), or they are virtue signaling over things they don't care as strongly about as they say (another form of dishonesty), or they are mad at something else.
I think it's a mix of both. Many people will say they care a lot of privacy and security, but behave in ways that show they really don't. From poor operational security, to bad passwords, to continuing business with firms that have already been hacked and exposed their personal information.
A lot of people complain also loudly over what they imagine is serious harm being done to them by ad tracking, but I would bet they are more annoyed by ads themselves, than by the theoretical and abstract (if distant background threat) of their info being harvested for harm. Because human being's reward system in their brain favors minimizing immediate pain.
Ads, whether targeted or not, are an annoyance, just like paywall dialogs, and people would rather see neither. I think this is the real nitty gritty, people unwilling to put up with the monetary cost of services, the hassle of signing up and paying, the performance detriments of ads, or the annoyance of having their attention interrupted by them and this is far and above the concerns over privacy.
No doubt, many people will say no, I'm wrong, they truly care extremely strongly about data mining, but I think the people who care that strongly as a small minority like the people who are rabid anti-vaxxers, or anti-GMO, hyperbolic fears of tiny risks, not shared by the mainstream.