content: You're partially right: it isn't that it's impossible to not be tracked because everybody ends up using a tracked system, and that one weak link compromises everything...  It's because all the systems rely on, to some degree, persistent identity to function. Why was it okay for your parents to take you home from school? Because the school knew who you and your parents were. Why did your work recognize you when you walked in the door and continue to pay you week after week? Because they knew who you were. Almost every system has to keep track of who you are to some degree in order to continue to serve its purpose in your life. The only way out is to not interact with any of it... That's dang near impossible for most people. The real work is in decreasing the quality of the data they have on you, making yourself uninteresting as a target for people who have all the data, and knowing how and when to really dial up the privacy on the things that really matter. Fun anecdote: For recovering access to some financial account , I don't remember which, they were doing the "which of these places did you live at?" "Which of these people did you know?" thing, and a completely fabricated person that I used for throwaway services for decades was offered as a person that I knew once upon a time… To be clear: The name, age, birthday, phone number, country of residence , ethnicity, and everything about this made-up person was different from my own. Had only ever been used for online services that required no proof of identity, and never for any shipping or purchases of anything in my name or to any of my addresses. On the downside, sucks that they manage to associate that with me ( kept it active too long, I guess). On the plus side, they think this fake person is real. It would be like your bank asking you if you used to live with one "Mr. Dick Cockerson von Penisthrob" on "1234 Notreal Street" as part of your account recovery process... I of course said no and failed the account recovery process and had to call in...