unix_surrealism

Yeah the "good" thing about the Internet of the nineties and the naughties was the difficulty of actually making any money on it. There wasn't much reason for big corporations to try and take over, and the companies that did have a significant presence on it were mostly run by tech nerds, not finance bros. The web was mostly static sites and the concept of collecting data on users beyond their IP addresses didn't really exist.

The companies and the products are different now, because the people in charge now have different ideas about what is possible, reasonable and profitable compared to 20 years ago. Add to that all the changes to the underlying technology and social norms - it's a very different environment.

It's true that we can't go back to the way things were, because that would require the context of the entire world to shift. But we can still indicate our desire for products that are less invasive, less exploitative.