>>/5197/
It’s not just about the government having access to this data. Your personal information is going to the company you sent it to and anyone willing to pay for the data. You also have to remember that data breaches are pretty common now, so if the company isn’t storing their data securely, then anyone who wants it can see the data you’ve submitted.
Don’t forget that when you’re using these websites, they’re constantly digitally fingerprinting you. The fingerprinting data points include more information that you could imagine, such as your screen resolution, the fonts you have saved on your machine, add-ons installed, etc. etc. They know you’ve visited bigblackcocklovers.net because they know your digital fingerprint. So not only would they be selling the information you voluntarily submit, they’re also saving and storing data such as what websites you’ve visited, articles read, etc. thanks to your digital fingerprint – all later to be sold. So now the government knows you love BBC.
I also don’t understand the willingness to spread your personal information if “Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. has that information anyway”. Why give them that information to begin with? The best thing you can do is rid yourself of using these services. Don’t engage with Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, don’t have a smartphone, and use a good VPN. Then you don’t have to say, “my information’s out there anyways” because you’re not engaged in the system, they no longer have a means to collect information on you – that is, if you’re smart with how you use the internet.
It’s possible to mitigate these things, it may be hard, and it requires behavioral changes. What I mentioned here are the first baby steps. Don’t worry about switching to Linux and encrypting all of your hard drives right away. Just start by removing yourself from the fagman ecosystem.