I've given up hoping that we can ever get to this stage or even reverse the situation to what it was ca 2000. It seems to me we've lost it for good - for the foreseeable future anyway.

My personal action has been to withdraw from most of the net, no Google accounts, no social media accounts, no online shopping etc. Essentially, I've reverted to almost pre net days. I've even reduced email to a trickle, I've killed off subs from list servers etc. My diversity of activity is only a tiny fraction of what it was a decade ago. This is the price I'm prepared to pay but I know I'm one of very few (and that's the key problem - too few people are complaining).

I reckon it's lost because even highly intelligent friends of mine some of who have been in security and surveillance work and who know the issues very well and hate the present situation simply find it too exhausting to continue fighting. As they say and as I know, it's an ongoing struggle. Every day, it's a new issue and another battle.

For example, I use Linux on PCs where ever possible and my Windows is still Win 7 with automatic updates turned off (because that's as far as I'm prepared to trust Windows), but my caved-in security/surveillance buddies use Win 10 and don't bother to root their Android phones and use Gmail and even Zoom because they complain that they can't fight or are not prepared to fight their families, kids etc. all of whom use social media, Gmail and Win 10 etc., etc. Even I who am more stubborn than most gets criticized by family members who, whilst they have some understanding of the problem, aren't prepared to give up or go cold turkey on these highly addictive products.

As I said in other posts about COVID-19, I can't understand why people can't enjoy the isolation like I do (I've so much to occupy me I can't get bored). This is the problem, whilst I'm prepared to give up the net's goodies, Big Tech's adductive products, my family and so many others are just not prepared to do so.

This was the true genius of those in Big Tech - I detest them with a passion for ruining the net, but I give them 11/10 for brilliance - for developing schemes that make them billions of which ordinary punters, once trapped, have no means of escape from.

Essentially, most people on the planet are so in love with their 'free' Big Tech toys that they not prepared to give them up. As such, there's no pressure on governments to do anything about the situation. We're in the same position with copywrite and patent laws - people aren't marching in the streets, throwing stones through the RIAA's or writer's guild windows, so nothing ever happens.

The other problem is that calls like this, whilst very common, aren't consolidated into a worldwide movement, and in my opinion, that's the real crux of our problem.

Until there's common unity nothing will happen. Unity and consolidation is everything. All disparate groups need to be brought together. For example, the right to repair groups have similar aims - they too must be included.

As I've said, I don't see this happening anytime soon - as too many of those I've mentioned are also addicted to Big Tech's electronic heroin, so it remains a lost cause.

I just wish it weren't so.