@Ooze @fraying If I want to use Instagram, they get my email, password, IP, browser version, screen size, operating system, which pages I visit and how long I spend there, access to certain parts of my phone; they get to show me ads and shape my interests through opaque recommendation algorithms. If I could follow an Instagram user from Mastodon, they’d get the profile I chose to make public on the World Wide Web, and I’d get the posts I want in my home feed. Tell me how this is equivalent.