Yeah, if you live in a tiny medieval village or a small town in the middle of nowhere in 1980 there was little "privacy" but Jeffrey Dahmer was fucking dudes (back when that wasn't ok) and eating people in his apartment for years before anyone caught on. In more suburban settings there truly was privacy to a large practical extent.
Furthermore, these argument lie through their teeth to portray privacy from those who you mostly voluntarily associate, vs privacy from government systems that can seek you out, have power over you and can fairly unilaterally screw you with little recourse and you cannot choose not to associate with.
Having people not associate with you in 1980, or 1280, because you did something sly or immoral is fundamentally different from being combed over by the government because you hit some unknowable proprietary criteria that triggered them to go over you with a fine tooth comb.
There's this insidious HN tendency to believe that "The Government" (whatever that means) is 100% malicious and Out To Get Us. The reality is far more nuanced, my friend. if "The Government" was truly out to get so many people, they would get them, and society wouldn't actually functoin. "The Government" wants people to work, and raise children and stimulate the economy; The Government likes when people are abled and working/supporting others, and paying taxes, and HNers seem to think "The Government" wants to perpetually interfere and intervene and trip us up. Just reading HN and /. and the other paranoia boards, I'd think that there are swat teams on every corner and black helicopters pouncing on every third hacker on a weekly basis, man.
The crazy thing is that this administration in the USA is gutting governmental apparatus, makign a "small government" and "drainining the swamp" that leftists love to hate on, but honestly a "smaller government" definitely for sure won't have enough ability to screw with the common man like y'all believe it would.
Sure, gov't can privatize a lot of stuff like handing over to Flock, but still, Flock's aligned with them, and (see Wings of Desire again) this is not malice and not naked malevolence. Sorry.