Earlier quoted context omitted.
In eastern Europe, the original people doing the tracking and analyzing were your favorite local secret police of course. (take your pick, and I'm sure we can google some examples). I'm pretty sure they'd be quite jealous of some of the modern advertising companies. That said, even if you're in a west European country with a long and proud democratic tradition (like -say- the Netherlands); you can find examples of pe…
I did say a couple posts above that if the government is doing the tracking - then yeah, I would be worried. But if I had something (just or unjust) to hide, I would certainly not rely on a government regulation to protect me. I would simply not trust it and I would use my own methods of protection. Finally, you presented me with a few valid historical cases which I am not sure are even close: none of them involved a…
And, you're right. Though previously tracking has only ever caused death/injury/severe_national_embarrassment when the data has been obtained by governments, censuses, counties, post offices, phone companies, and possibly social media companies that start with F; so far social media companies that start with Z have not caused any problems that have been reported in the news where I live. We should therefore trust social media companies that start with Z, because they have a flawless track record.