They saw this groundswell of potential players to add to their huge database of people to market to, and said “we’re getting those email addresses”
See, this is the salient point, right here.
The correct response to this action is “LOL, sure. You can have my protonmail account that I only use to sign up for free shit, anyway.”
Checkmate. Internet 1, Sony 0.
But instead, we get all this shit-flinging, foot-stomping, childish nonsense.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, signing up for all the shit they ask us to sign up for, in an ORGANIZED WAY, could actually change the whole situation, for the better. Here’s the plan that should be enacted:
Nobody gets screeching mad. Angry people behave predictably.
Everyone reminds each other to ONLY USE THROWAWAY ADDRESSES TO SIGN UP FOR CORPORATE SHIT.
Everyone reminds each other to NEVER ENGAGE WITH ANY MAILING LISTS OR OTHER BULLSHIT THAT YOU GET, ON ANY OF THOSE THROWAWAY ADDRESSES.
Stick to that shit, for EVERYTHING. Don’t try and stop people from asking for your stupid throwaway email. Don’t threaten anybody with boycotting. Just continue giving out the completely worthless email addresses.
Sooner or later, it becomes apparent that the majority of email addresses that are being collected in this manner are basically worthless.
Consequently, the value of these email addresses plummets, both as a tradeable commodity and as a means of mining further data.
Corporations slowly stop trying to track people via email.