Not an excuse, but an explanation: ignorance.

Most people don’t know how ads or data collection works beyond the obvious uptick in a product after you search for it. They don’t know what impact it might have.

Full disclosure: I’m mostly in this camp. I only recently started using firefox over chrome, for example. I know that big tech collects obscene amounts of data, and monetizes it by targeted advertisements, but…beyond that, I don’t know what FAANG can do with the data collected on me. I only have a vague idea of what’s being collected.

Fundamental rights

I was homeschooled. Never went to public school. And my parents were christians, so naturally they bought christian apologetic textbooks.

One science (biology I think, high school level) textbook had most of a chapter discussing why the “theory of evolution” was “wrong”. Another book from the same publisher discussed at length why global warming (and the ozone-thinning effect of certain chemicals) was untrue.

My chemistry professor in college, wonderful man that he was, was the first person to explain divergent and convergent evolution to me.