  Privacy is an increasingly feeble constituent of the present datafied world
and apparently the reason for that is clear: powerful actors worked to invade
everyone's privacy for commercial and surveillance purposes. The existence of
those actors and their agendas is undeniable, but the explanation is overly
simplistic and contributed to create a narrative that tends to preserve the
status quo. In this essay, I analyze several facets of the lack of online
privacy and idiosyncrasies exhibited by privacy advocates, together with
characteristics of the industry mostly responsible for the datafication process
and why its asserted high effectiveness should be openly inquired. Then I
discuss of possible effects of datafication on human behavior, the prevalent
market-oriented assumption at the base of online privacy, and some emerging
adaptation strategies. In the last part, the regulatory approach to online
privacy is considered. The EU's GDPR is praised as the reference case of modern
privacy regulations, but the same success hinders critical aspects that also
emerged, from the quirks of the institutional decision process, to the flaws of
the informed consent principle. A glimpse on the likely problematic future is
provided with a discussion on privacy related aspects of EU, UK, and China's
proposed generative AI policies.
