When the Trump administration gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to a massive database of information about Medicaid recipients in June 2025, privacy and medical justice advocates sounded the alarm. They warned that the move could trigger all kinds of public health and human rights harms.
But most people likely shrugged and moved on with their day. Why is that? It’s not that people don’t care. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 81% of American adults said they were concerned about how companies use their data, and 71% said they were concerned about how the government uses their data.
At the same time, though, 61% expressed skepticism that anything they do makes much difference. This is because people have come to expect that their data will be captured, shared and misused by state and corporate entities alike. For example, many people are now accustomed to instinctively hitting “accept” on terms of service agreements, privacy policies and cookie banners regardless of what the policies actually say.
Or they just don’t care so long as it gets them the convenience they want - because they don’t understand what it means.
From my personal experiences, comfort. People will not do things if it’s a little new or different…
I’ve been trying to get my friend to drop unsecure channels… Like moving to anything other than their default chatting app but … That involve them installing the app and apparently that’s and insane ask. I got like few of my friends converted… But all were already tech savvy folks that didn’t find switching apps and issue.
