I use uBlock Origin's element picker and element blocker features to just make the popup notices disappear, without accepting them.
But that's mostly just a habit of mine that I know is pretty useless, as websites don't need cookies to track you, and I really don't know why they even bother anymore.
You can almost certainly be uniquely identified from the combination of feeds your RSS reader polls regularly, combined with your location, if the feeds alone are not enough.
The more feeds you subscribe to, the more unique your fingerprint.
Trying to avoid tracking on the modern web is a losing battle for any but the most hyperparanoid, consistently careful, and technically astute individuals.
For everyone else: you're going to leak identity information one way or another, and it's going to get correlated. The more plugged-in and connected you are, the harder it is to remain anonymous.
If you really value your privacy, don't use the internet or any types of computers, including phones, and never go outside.
"abundance of F/OSS has pushed us towards SaaS as one of the few places left to make a living from pure software dev, and the oligopolies arising out of it. What about Linux (Android) being used as the prime spyware vector, and Linux being used for cloud lock-in (k8s et al)?"
It's not like closed-source software would have prevented any of this.
So should we have been buying from Amazon's competitors instead, even if they have a worse selection, worse customer service, few if any reviews, slower delivery, and are much more inconvenient to buy from?
Variety, choice, and a healthy competitive ecosystem are definitely desirable and to be missed with Amazon's dominance, but there are many reasons Amazon is ahead of other e-commerce sites and brick-and-mortar stores.
It'll be interesting to see if/when Amazon finally starts to seriously increase its prices once the rest of its competition are dead and there's no where else for consumers to go.
Will there be a reckoning? Will Amazon be split up?
"Many complain about Bezos making billions and not paying a fair share of taxes; yet they support and empower him to further do so with every purchase they make from Amazon."
From what I understand, the vast majority of Amazon's profit comes not from the e-commerce website but from AWS.
And the overwhelming majority of Bezos' net worth comes from the value of Amazon's stock, does it not?
So aren't the people who are most responsible for his wealth the purchasers of Amazon's stock, not the users of the e-commerce part of the business?