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LINK Big Tech and the Rise of Surveillance Capitalism

"A few years ago after the 2008 financial crash Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone described Goldman Sachs, that great titan of financial capitalism, as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Fast forward almost ten years and you could say the same, and much worse, about surveillance capitalism, according to Shoshana Zuboff author of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.

This time though the squid is even bigger and it is jamming its blood funnel, via smart phones, smart TVs, tablets & soon even smart homes, into every last nook and cranny of our individual & collective privacy. The very thing that was suppose to set us free and serve us, as internet creator Tim Berners Lee had hoped, has now evolved as Lee said “into an engine of inequity and division; swayed by powerful forces who use it for their own agendas.” The capture & commodification of our data, the predatory construction of user profiles and surveillance is in the DNA of surveillance capitalism. Cambridge Analytica is only the tip of the iceberg."

WilliamCharles 8 May 7
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1

Who would have thought that technological development would be the downfall of democracy? Turns out that actual political decisions don't matter when you can manipulate people at scale, effectively turning the act of voting into an exercise in popularity bought with money that was obtained by manipulating people at scale.

However, the same technology also provides promise of salvation. We are in an age where transition to a direct democracy, that is to say a system where people vote on political decisions without representatives, ideally through the Internet is possible.

You can conceal yourself online via a VPN, download ad blockers, ( How does anyone live without them? ) make purchases with Bitcoins, and use non-tracking services like duck-duck-go instead of google.

1

Nothing is scared!

You can be tracked 24/7/365 without any additional costs to one’s self!
Or actual personal permissions!

Except you can not opt out in any form!

Your privacy is mute, any time you have any device connected to WIFi and/or the internet you are nothing but an account to be exploited without any form of consent or compensation!

Welcome to the 21st Century!

You can and should take steps to minimize your signature. You can see how much information you are leaking to the world here: [whatsmyip.org]

If you are using a VPN you can make it look like your IP is anywhere in the world, or changes every time you go online making it very hard for anyone to track you.

If you are using windows 10 you can limit the data that goes to microsoft through cortona, but you have to do a registry edit, so proceed with caution.

You can limit data that goes to google by using other search engines, [duckduckgo.com] doesn't track you as part of their business model, and they are already profitable so they will likely stick around for a while.

@Happy_Killbot
Yes! I agree completely!
Except it may be too little too late for everyone!
Even with those precautions, low profile, and low foot print you are still in on one of thousands of data basis and meta data servers! Many of the servers and meta data are under direct control of our government! Not just goggle, yahoo, twitter, instagram, Apple, and Facebook!

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Capitalism is the only economic political system that has successfully created a demand from the populous to be oppressed, a demand so high that the oppressed are willing to demand to be allowed to pay for the tools of oppression to be placed in their workplace, in their homes and on their persons.

It stands and will stand for as long as their is recorded history, as a testament to both the ingenuity and gullibility of humankind.

1

Surveillance ... If you're not doing anything wrong, what's the problem?

Concerns over privacy, concerns over what is considered right and wrong and concerns over who writes and enforces those judgements?

You maybe happy to one day receive a fixed penalty notice for being observed to have been pissing in the toilet in an incorrect manner, complete with photo evidence.
I am not!

@LenHazell53

Did you really suggest that someone might penalize you for "being observed to have been pissing in the toilet"...?

.do you carry your camera in to the bathroom with you?

Do you ever - EVER take video of you doing anything even the slightest bit irreverent, illegal, or incorrect?

Wow....are you paranoid!

"Surveillance ... If you're not doing anything wrong, what's the problem?" A naive assumption that the surveillance will not ever be used against you by a totalitarian government like those that exist in many countries in the world today.

@LenHazell53 if the world comes to the point where people are getting fined for not urinating correctly, then we have more serious problems than surveillance don't you think... Maybe try to offer a more realistic example... 😂😂

@LenHazell53, @dahermit like I said, you doing anything wrong, so what can they use against you...

Today you do what you will and nothing is wrong. Tomorrow someone decides they don't like you for political reasons, and pass laws that make some aspect of your life illegal, then they harvest your organs.
[en.wikipedia.org]

@Happy_Killbot so when a new law is passed, follow the law...

@Cutiebeauty what if they make being Jewish illegal?

@Happy_Killbot well... If you wanna save your organs, stop being Jewish or move out the country lmao...

@Cutiebeauty also, F*** following the law, just for the sake of doing so!

You should follow the law because you believe in supporting society and trust that obeying the rules we lay out for governing ourselves will be beneficial to everyone. If you think a law is unjust, You should protest against it instead of blindly following it.

If the law will not be changed, then by all means, BREAK IT!

Consider this example: Lets say a politician gets into office on the promise that he will lower taxes, then once elected keeps his promise, however to make up the budget deficit he raises rates on public transit, adopts ordinances that add unnecessary fines, such as smoking in public etc. effectively shifting the tax burden to the lower and middle class.

Should the people effected be allowed to protest these laws that unfairly affect them?

@Happy_Killbot that's funny.. My last comment was made in jest...

@Cutiebeauty You've run in to a bunch of paranoids. I concur with you. Basically; change the passwords of your bank and credit accounts every so often, and you're good. Even that might be the ultra-secure strategy that I've been sold...

@Robecology paranoid and a bit extremist...

@Cutiebeauty Sigh...if you do not get what I said, consider the constitution. They must have a warrant.

@dahermit I get what you're saying...

@Robecology
Go back and read it again, then try and and say something sensible.

@Cutiebeauty
My point exactly that your attitude of "If you're not doing anything wrong, what's the problem?" is the gap that allows purchase to the thin end of the wedge.
It is the same principle as the Mormons forbidding the consumption of coffee, then using the converts acceptance of that, to pile silly idea upon silly idea until you are moronically wearing a Pillsbury dough boy suit and magic knickers in a temple vowing to believe god lives on a planet orbiting the star Kolob.

Why not justify having cameras in the toilet? It stops people taking drugs in there and abusing the privacy of your bathroom, does it not? In fact it is the one room in the house without a camera, isn't that likely to be where the burglar gets in? And of course speaking of drugs perhaps for the safety of all at some point toilets will have built in drug testing devices, checking your children's urine? For your safety of course, and that of your guests, well you've allowed stop and search, by that time maybe compulsory ID papers, cameras on every street corner, why the half measure? Only someone with something to hide would object to cameras in the bathroom? Perhaps you are pissing in the sink so your urine can't be tested?
You are advocating guilty until proven innocent when you say "If you're not doing anything wrong, what's the problem?"
So put the government spy cameras in you house and in the John because WHY NOT why is that room any different to any other???

@LenHazell53 haha like I said above... That's an extreme circumstance... Privacy in the home is a whole different story...

@Cutiebeauty
By your own contention, it is not. If the rule "Surveillance ... If you're not doing anything wrong, what's the problem?" cannot be applied universally, then it is meaningless.
You are indulging in special pleading.

@LenHazell53 so then let's all walk around naked because someone might be hiding drugs or weapons under their clothes...

@Cutiebeauty I will if you will 😉

3

Another reason I don't have or want a smartphone and limit my online computer use to a small amount of FB and otherwise only visiting a few sites, along with very little online shopping.

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