Why is it that people hate the surveillance state, yet everyone has a phone?

Might be that the surveillance danger of smart phone ownership feels abstract and theoretical, while the conveniences are obvious and concrete.

Moreover, information and inferences can often be made in ways that are subtle and unintuitive, so it's easy to look at the types of information being logged and think, "Pffft, who cares if they know that?"

When it comes to more heavy handed means of surveillance (e.g. actual wire taps), there's probably a prevailing sentiment that: "Surely my phone isn't bugged. Why would they be interested in me anyway?" For the average person, this thinking may have some merit when it comes to government surveillance, but not so much with - say - ransomware.

And then there are probably people who think digital privacy is already a lost cause, so they figure it's not worth it to even try.

Many people sort of need a phone in a lot of contexts (professional and to manage their life.) I'm not conspiratorially minded but if I were, I'd say that "they" have kind of made them indispensable in a lot of ways. It's difficult to live without one but not impossible.