I think where privacy minded people fail to understand is that for most people we are not committing crimes or shady shit online therefore why care? A lot of us understand that if you type anything in a computer it is assumed to be on the public record either easily found or through a few hoops to get it.
The issue isn’t that people are trying to hide their crimes or their shady shit, it’s that the information about ourselves that we did not post online/are only letting a select few know are being revealed to strangers without our consent. It’s about the choice of who we are willing to reveal what to. Are you willing to let strangers know every aspect of your daily life? What you eat, when you sleep, when you poop, where you go, what you like to do etc. Because that’s what companies want with data collection, to know every aspect of you, the good the bad the ugly, so that they can market your data to advertisers and constantly push their products to you. Taken to the futuristic extreme, they can and will push toilet paper products to you while you are on the toilet, or advertise gym services while you are eating dessert, or maybe even push sex products while you are in bed with your partner. It’s this sort of future that many people are worried about and want to prevent from happening. (And this isn’t even talking about what governments can do with this sort of data collection.)
People want the choice of being able to reveal select information to select people. That’s what privacy is.
I think that the average person is just ignorant about the issues regarding privacy, or doesn’t have the time and energy to find out/care about it. Big societal issues such as privacy require some digging into to find information on, and they require some (a lot of) thinking to fully understand the problems and the consequences of these issues. A lot of people are already struggling to deal with their daily lives. Big issues like internet privacy and data collection are too big and too distant for them to care about, and the short-term convenience gained from giving in is too good. It’s currently quite a hassle for the average layman to learn how to use and implement the tools to protect your privacy (not helped by the big businesses deliberately making things difficult).