Bottom line up front: more than it used to; and not enough as it should.
FSF, in my view, is like Consumer Reports for a select group of nerds. The kind of people that would talk to you about operating systems at a party. For the record, I am that guy in my circle of friends and family.
I believe it DOES matter. And properly executed, can mean more than it does now.
I have more non-technical people than ever talking to me about privacy than ever before. More than security even. I get approached unbidden by people wanting to know how they can keep their data from prying eyes.
Bit by bit, people are waking up. The hard part about it is the asymmetry of knowledge. For example - in Mudge’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mudge himself indicated that within 20 minutes they knew key information about a potential malicious actor: location, name, online aliases, device, alternative accounts, etc. But no one is discussing how that data came to be in their hands.
IP and cell tower geolocation and device identification are technical parts of it. But being able to JOIN on data sets to build a dossier on a private person is not being fully discussed. Where are the data sets from? How did Twitter get them?
But bit by bit, people are waking up.
For those of us that are “the nerds of the family/friend group” - I see that we have a responsibility to remain even in our analysis, if we show up with grave accusations we come with demonstrable evidence, and we promote FSF, FOSS, and more where we can by showing that it is the better option.
People want to be secure. But there’s a limit to the sacrifice they’re willing to make. We have to find a way to meet them where they’re at.
The number of questions I get about when I’ll get my L5 is about 1-2 a month. From various parties. It’s been embarrassing to have been repeating, “Not yet. Soon” for three years. But it is what it is. My time will come. As it will for the rest of us.
The interest is there. The curiosity is there. We just need to tap into it and show people it’s possible to get what they want - live a technical life without having to feel as if the world is watching them undress.