Americans for now seem to grudgingly accept that these are the trade-offs of living in the digital age — or else they fear that it is too late to do anything about it… once people are invested in a service — if they have all their social contacts on Facebook or years of email on Gmail, for instance — they have a hard time giving it up.

“It’s this modern economy that doesn’t really rely on price, but on connections and stickiness,” Mr. Rotenberg said. “The companies have done everything they can to make it impossible to go somewhere else.”

…

Pew offered some evidence that people are inured to the trade-offs of using digital services: Ninety-one percent agree or strongly agree that consumers have lost control over how their personal information is collected or used by companies. They are unsure what to do about it, though.

– Claire Cain Miller, Americans Say They Want Privacy, but Act as if They Don’t