It boils down to consent. You should always always get consent before taking an action that includes somebody else. Just because you can see me is not consent to record me. If you don't have consent, don't do it. It's as simple as that.
Grouchy
Look into Pixelfed.
So you want me to visit one of the greatest surveillance capitalist and privacy abusers video website to get tips on how to help people understand why privacy is important? Yah, about that. No.
You can't stop location tracking on cellular devices. If it's connected to a cell tower, you're being tracked and profiled.
Mastodon and friends are built as open conduits with very little in the way of safety or permissions. Spam should be expected.
It's not a Fediverse vulnerability. It's a Mastodon vulnerability. Don't want spam? Use a better fediverse technology.
Jabber (XMPP) or Matrix/Element.
Cell phone tracking is common place. If you carry one, you're being tracked, profiled and having your data correlated with others. The question is whether you support living in a surveillance society. If you do, grab a cell phone and be happy. If not, get rid of it and use alternative communication methods. It's a simple choice. In my experience, most people choose convenience over privacy.
Conversations, Cheogram, Dino are the ones I've used.
There is no such thing as a private cellular device. It does not matter if it's a smartphone, dumb phone, or simple internet access device.
Cellular devices are location tracked and their owners profiled. All devices have proprietary cellular modems that communicate over the network and have full access to your system. Nothing you do on device will stop that.
The only exception I've heard of is from Purism. The Librem 5 claims to separate the base system from the cellular modem, but that still won't stop the location tracking.
Point blank, you can't carry a connected cellular device, and have privacy. They are mutually exclusive goals.
To use an Alphabet product is to support Alphabet regardless of how you access it. If you want to de-google, then stop using their products 100%.