As of late 2025, the 2020s decade is only about halfway complete, and the evidence on whether privacy has become the “killer feature” and primary market differentiator in tech is mixed.

On the supporting side:

• Major tech firms, especially Apple, have clearly tried to use privacy as a core selling point. Apple’s long-running “Privacy. That’s iPhone” campaign and its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, introduced with iOS 14.5, are marketed explicitly as user-privacy features and have significantly disrupted the mobile ads ecosystem, costing social media companies billions in revenue and triggering antitrust investigations. (appleinsider.com)
• Regulation has moved sharply toward consumer data protection, indicating that privacy is now a central concern for policymakers and, by extension, for product design and positioning. The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) created a dedicated privacy enforcement agency and took effect in 2023, and the California Delete Act (SB 362) adds a one‑stop mechanism for deleting data held by brokers. (en.wikipedia.org) Global developments like India’s 2023 Digital Personal Data Protection Act further underscore this shift. (reddit.com)
• Multiple surveys show privacy strongly influencing consumer behavior. A 2024 Cisco consumer privacy survey reports that about three‑quarters of respondents will not purchase from companies they don’t trust with their data, and other polling finds large majorities worried about corporate data use and willing to avoid products over privacy concerns. (reddit.com) In payments, a Mastercard study finds that in Latin America and the Caribbean, 73% of consumers say privacy is a top priority and they choose payment methods that protect user data. (crowdfundinsider.com) These patterns support the idea that privacy is increasingly a differentiating feature and marketing angle.

On the limiting side:

• The biggest consumer platforms of the 2020s—especially TikTok—continue to grow explosively despite sustained criticism and regulatory scrutiny over data practices. TikTok roughly doubled its global user base between 2020 and 2024 and surpassed 200 million monthly users in Europe in 2025, despite major privacy concerns, fines, and even outright bans in markets like India. (alloutseo.com) This suggests that for many users, entertainment, network effects, and convenience still outweigh privacy in actual behavior.
• Some industry and consumer research still finds price, convenience, personalization, and general trust to be core decision drivers, with privacy one important factor among several rather than the single dominant "killer" feature. For example, studies of retail personalization show consumers want permission and control over data, but they also heavily prioritize relevance and convenience in shopping experiences. (digitalcommerce360.com)

Because (1) the prediction explicitly covers the entire 2020s decade, which won’t end until 2030, and (2) current evidence shows a strong upward trend in the importance and marketing of privacy but not a clear, decisive displacement of other drivers (price, convenience, network effects) across the tech industry, it is too early to definitively say whether privacy will end up as the defining “killer feature” of the decade in the broad, market‑shaping sense Chamath implied. The trajectory is partly consistent with his view, but the final outcome for the full decade remains uncertain, so the fairest verdict for now is “inconclusive (too early).”