When We Signed Up for Social Media and Other Accounts Some of Us Truly Thought We thought We Were Rebels Getting over on “The Man” By Writing a Made Up Name and Putting in Our Wrong Age and So On”
The tech geniuses who came up with this fresh kind of data collecting knew that some of us would give bogus info when signing up, which was taken into account as a part their master. They already had their bases covered. And of course there were millions and millions of people to whom it never crossed their minds that maybe it was not such a great idea to give their private information. They would just give out their real demographic details. Their legal name was out there on social media so they could show, and even spruce up their lifestyle, for the camera. They would document anything that that they thought was status building. Kind of like the concept of “Keeping up with the Jones’.”
You and I Know Who Has the Last Laugh Daily
Those of us who tried to to buck the system with not entirely true info so we would not be victims, were not even close to fooling the data collectors. We were just a part of their data building process and they had lots of other ways to get all the data they needed about us. We were way out of our league, and were pawns just like everybody else in this twisted American Dream gone wrong. The data collectors, which was really what big search and social companies are, were not even slightly worried about how some consumers would try to buck the system. Those harvesting our info, quietly kept moving forward, effortlessly with getting more and more effective of tapping into our wants, needs and desires so they could in turn bring in billions and billions of dollars from advertisers and other means. When you really think about it, it is quite bold getting us to pay for things like phones and electronic equipment that was really a part of their being able to spy on us. Pretty impressive on the part of big corps getting us to pay them for equipment so they could listen in on us and track how we did things, to get better and better at their job of understanding what makes us tick. And payday resulted in higher and higher numbers.
Data, Data and More Data
When you use your phones your conversations became more data for them. When you use their email capabilities, your personal correspondences become more data for them. How about those free graphics tools letting you create things and interact with others. Yes, still more data for them. Or that thing have in your home that obeys your commands for turning the lights on and off. When you command it to do something, guess what, it is recording your voice for still more data. But it does not end there, they use that device to record everything you say in your home. Your private conversations become even more data for them. And on and on and on.
And the Really Sad Part is We Know We are Giving Up on Any Privacy when We Click “Yes” for Terms of Service, But We Do it Anyway
All we know is that if we refuse to click “Yes” do so we won’t get that “free” (?!) email address. Plus we tell each other it is okay. Lots of people click “yes.” But when you agree with terms of service and any other agreements, you are giving them the right to spy on you, learn everything that makes you who you are, both public and “private.” Because the more they know about you, the better precision focused they can be when selling ads. And those who pay for those ads want accuracy in terms of they desire to reach.
We are Bought and Sold Daily, 24/7, Even in Our Sleep
You are a commodity that is bought and paid for without you knowing it. For what? Being able to show vacation pictures to your friends? To be cooler than your neighbor because your lifestyle is better than theirs (at least digitally)? And even knowing all that, we click “yes” because we are in denial. We do it for a variety of different reasons, but it is all the same result in the end. We sell our valuable identity and personal information, in exchange for what? And yet even knowing this is happening, we do it anyway. Again and Again. “How bad can it really be” we think to our selves? Everybody’s doing it. Right? There are worse things in life…?
This is a two part post, and if you are interested in reading the portion of this article that comes prior to the section you just looked at, feel free to go to “NYC Create“ to see it.