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'Thousands of Companies Are Spying On You' (cnn.com)
Security guru Bruce Schneier warns that "thousands of companies" are spying on us and manipulating us for profit. An anonymous reader quotes his article on CNN:
Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff calls it "surveillance capitalism." And as creepy as Facebook is turning out to be, the entire industry is far creepier. It has existed in secret far too long, and it's up to lawmakers to force these companies into the public spotlight, where we can all decide if this is how we want society to operate and -- if not -- what to do about it...
Surveillance capitalism drives much of the internet. It's behind most of the "free" services, and many of the paid ones as well. Its goal is psychological manipulation, in the form of personalized advertising to persuade you to buy something or do something, like vote for a candidate. And while the individualized profile-driven manipulation exposed by Cambridge Analytica feels abhorrent, it's really no different from what every company wants in the end... Surveillance capitalism is deeply embedded in our increasingly computerized society, and if the extent of it came to light there would be broad demands for limits and regulation. But because this industry can largely operate in secret, only occasionally exposed after a data breach or investigative report, we remain mostly ignorant of its reach...
Regulation is the only answer.The first step to any regulation is transparency. Who has our data? Is it accurate? What are they doing with it? Who are they selling it to? How are they securing it? Can we delete it...? The market can put pressure on these companies to reduce their spying on us, but it can only do that if we force the industry out of its secret shadows.
The article also insists that "None of this is new," pointing out that companies like Facebook and Google offer their free services in exchange for your data.
But he also notes that there are now already 2,500 to 4,000 data brokers just in the U.S., including Equifax.
Surveillance capitalism drives much of the internet. It's behind most of the "free" services, and many of the paid ones as well. Its goal is psychological manipulation, in the form of personalized advertising to persuade you to buy something or do something, like vote for a candidate. And while the individualized profile-driven manipulation exposed by Cambridge Analytica feels abhorrent, it's really no different from what every company wants in the end... Surveillance capitalism is deeply embedded in our increasingly computerized society, and if the extent of it came to light there would be broad demands for limits and regulation. But because this industry can largely operate in secret, only occasionally exposed after a data breach or investigative report, we remain mostly ignorant of its reach...
Regulation is the only answer.The first step to any regulation is transparency. Who has our data? Is it accurate? What are they doing with it? Who are they selling it to? How are they securing it? Can we delete it...? The market can put pressure on these companies to reduce their spying on us, but it can only do that if we force the industry out of its secret shadows.
The article also insists that "None of this is new," pointing out that companies like Facebook and Google offer their free services in exchange for your data.
But he also notes that there are now already 2,500 to 4,000 data brokers just in the U.S., including Equifax.
Every breath you take, Every move you make, Every bond you break, Every step you take, I'll be watching you. Sting
Is this site spying to me?
We know you're trying to muddy the waters and use the "everybody does it" rationalization. "Thousands of companies" aren't using search and social networking and Android monopoly power to spy on us like you guys are. It's only you doing that.
"Thousand of companies" also don't have PR problems due to arrogant, dismissive management. That's a Google and Facebook problem.
"Thousands of companies" haven't lost the trust of their audience by trying to impose Silicon Valley "values" on them. That's a Google and Facebook problem.
It's just like casinos. If everyone was winning money in them, they wouldn't be able to afford to keep the lights on. If you're using something a company provides to you without paying for it, then it's really you who's the product.
in the nude. If they're gonna spy on me let them pay for it in the worst way possible.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
a good primer on manipulation is The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing by Swedish Psychologist Joost Meerloo
When I bring this up with many (perhaps most) of my friends and co-workers, the prevalent attitude seems to be "we've already lost, there's no reason to resist".
Another thing is when I mention it at work - what I hear back from certain faculty is how Google and Amazon are giving us a lot of money, so we're going to pretend none of this is a concern.
#DeleteChrome
Advertising? You really think this is about selling you trash?
This is the New World Order's wet dream.
Having any and all information to hang over any challengers stupid enough to think Justice and Liberty for all.
It's over folks. And you can thank the dumb bastards who cry "tin foil hat conspiracy theory" at any and all suggestions that "our" leaders aren't serving their constituents and their nation.
Good bye... it hasn't been fun and it will get much much worse before things improve. 1984 was written in 1948... and the author was very late to the game even then.
Now if someone would compile a list of companies who aren't watching every click and hover, that would be helpful.
the idea originally was that capitalism was driven by endless consumerism and that companies would compete using the quality and features of their product. then a few things happened that Milton Friedman probably did not see coming. automation made the quality of competing products indistinguishable, and products with complete feature sets inevitably damaged repeat sales. Automation also drove the price of manufacturing so low that companies could not possibly continue on the demanded path of 15% growth per quarter in earnings.
somewhere around the late seventies America shifted from a product sold based on merit of quality, to a product sold based on a brand that identified with the consumers desire. Since human emotion drives desire, its theoretically endless. Soon products exploited sexual impotency, race, gender, and status to sell themselves. The end result was that companies could grow ad-infinitum so long as consumers never stopped to question conspicuous consumption, and remained divorced from the means of production which into the 21st century grew increasingly indistinguishable from slavery. Finally we have companies that literally spy on the hopes, dreams, and fears of an entire generation of adults in order for the mere potential to make a sale.
You might not be able to avoid the spycraft, but you can certainly derail its end goal. Reduce, reuse, and recycle goods you buy. Avoid major brands, and branded consumer holidays like Christmas. Repair instead of replacing old coats, gloves, and household small appliances. Look up a cobbler in your city, as there certainly exists one or more, and resole your shoes and boots instead of buying new ones.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Is always the answer. (sigh)
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
and mock your paranoid concept of a new world order.
Isn't that just code for some ethnocultural group that you particularly despise?
Get a grip and worry about your own shit. You just wish that whatever you're doing was important enough that some mysterious figment of your fevered brain cabal would actually care to include a moment's thought about you in their grand plan. Get a feckin' grip.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
First order of business should be a stalking charge.
... people's ability to influence company policies, nowhere is this seen more clearly then videogames and the tech community more generally. Basically companies have literally taken software hostage, literally theft. The new model is to undermine ownership of peoples software and machines and turn them into dumb walled garden terminals.
The reason is technology has undermined the very basis of western civ by companies NOT having to physically give you a product they can cut the software into pieces and keep part of it on their server which forces radical transparency and complete lack of privacy. The only way out would be to have some kind of say in how these companies are run and most people are too stupid and ideologically kept to capitalism. A rational society would see private ownership model is impossible post interneet because you'd need geographic proximity to force companies to stop producing software and other tech in a fraudulent and hostile manner. Most people are too ignorant, unconcerned and illiterate to request the policies that would force companies to stop basically comiting fraud on a massive scale. But either way the internet finally breaks any kind of consumer or power the general public might have had to influence companies.
And don't give me any "consumer has a choice" bs, the only way you'd have a choice is if you had money and power co equal to the bottomless well of cash on hand at the behest of mega corporations this is not an individual problem. It's the natural result of technology undermining the basis of the relationship where companies can simply now force policies they could never get away with pre internet because they wouldn't get paid pre internet they had to give you control over the thing you were buying.
In my case it's the city, county, state and federal government. They require me to interact via MailChimp and similar services. They process financial transactions and set appointments via outside services. Presumably the bureaucrats are saving money by giving up citizens' privacy. Possibly some particular bureaucrat is getting a kickback from these companies.
These services typically don't identify themselves- at the top of every page is the logo of a government agency, even though the URL is for a dot com. They are fraudulently impersonating the government at our expense! And, of course you won't find any privacy policy on those pages except perhaps that of the government. If you do find the corporation and its privacy policy, it will say that they may share your data with 'affiliates', which means anyone they want to call an affiliate when the mood strikes them.
If you have a driver license, social security account, military connection, utility bills, or any other business with any government--you may have no alternative. Oh, by the way, many non-profits are also selling you out this way.
...omphaloskepsis often...
Companies are not going to give up their moneymaker, and there are likely people who need services on their job. For example, a lot of places use Facebook for organizing events.
The Libertarian style of "let businesses make a profit" doesn't work. 1929 and 2008 showed this to be true. Hell, Europe is so pissed at US companies that they enacted sweeping laws just to go against them, which US countries can't abide by due to domestic legislation (the CLOUD act.)
The only way to fix this is with regulation.
I've know all this for years, but the Facebook thing hit me hard.
I mean think about it, you go to a restaurant, you give them money, they give you a cupcake. The cupcake pays nothing, but things don't end well for it.
The thing I realize now is I AM THE CUPCAKE with these companies. I thought it was about it them living of venture capital building user base waiting to monetize, I thought money from advertising meant other fools were paying for it all by clicking on ads and I had the game beat, but what it really means is them selling access to intelligence on my life to shadowy third parties, for questionable ends. That's a huge perceptual shift.
-The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
Find an OS that does not have spying on users as part of every release.
Get a good VPN and put that in a router. So every network connection is not from your IP and ISP.
Support a good AV brand that finds a lot of malware and nation funded spyware.
Put no script and use other methods to protect a browser.
Look into who is creating and funding the browser. Are they pro privacy?
Dont use social media.
Dont let social media get your cell phone details.
Don't connect a "smart" TV to the internet. Use a stand alone device just for streaming.
Dont bring in a networked microphone and camera product from a company that sells ads.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
No shit, Sherlock. Of course they are trying to find out everything possible about every potential consumer. They have always done that, from the invention of commerce in maybe 8000 BC. It's just that a lot more information that is easily available (for a pittance) than ever before.
Obviously, you encrypted all of your work. Kudos to you.
You describe what you've had to do to go off-grid, and it's extraordinarily restrictive. And you think *regulation* is a poor solution? Sheesh.
The article says "Regulation is the only answer.The first step to any regulation is transparency." That's defeatist, bordering on transparently inane. Since sufficient regulation is unlikely to happen in our lifetimes, because our government is both implicated and corrupt, waiting for "regulation" by a government body is kind of like saying "accept it". I don't accept much of anything and my standard of opting out keeps going higher. I block ALL ads in general website hopping and increasingly use Qubes &/or Tor to scrub my browsing. If I use firefox I've got like 5 different blockers running all the time (slashdot now shows with most graphics and formatting stripped and HTML tags all over the place). Of course I don't often use google, bing, or anything but startpage for my search engine. And I try to fuck with google & bing for kicks in my idle moments - I may be a loss leader for them. ;-/
I don't use "Android"; only low class people use Android, selling their Manhattan for trinkets. I've got my fingers crossed for Purism/PureOS.
If a site whines or simply forbids my blocking, I generally ignore the complaints or move on. Sometimes I will use the article title to find an alternate source.
Anyway, there are a LOT of things you can do to sidestep the Dystopia most people are bending over and lubing up for, Stop complaining and start acting up both actively and passive-agressively. You have more power than you think. Don't waste your time trying to "vote" corruption out of the government. If some privacy regulation someday comes down the pike that may be nice ... but more likely it will be just another con or system of control.
So if the US wants to see where it should be going, look to Europe. The problem of course is it will never happen. Legislators are afraid of the data collection industry and would be too chicken shit to do anything to meaningfully rein it in.
That and much more is what the EU General Data Protection Regulation mandates. Now we just need to push it to the rest of the world via trade treaties.
Surveillance Capitalism isn't the real problem. What feeds it, is. Bruce ignorantly assumes that people still give a shit about privacy. Professional Narcissist and Attention Whore are now paid professions, and oversharing is considered a social mantra. The masses worry about privacy about as much as a porn star worries about having sex in front of a camera.
In order to enact change, you have to get people to start giving a shit about privacy again, which would likely mean no more free internet services, including social media. With GenY/Z, good luck with that shit.
Seriously - anyone at all who can put two thoughs together knows that teh intertoobz has bee collecting our data for years now - I have no idea how this is supposed to be news. While the user can keep some of the tracking and dta grabbing from happening, overall, the Internet has zero privacy, and the more extreme attempts at cloaking just make a person interesting.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I choose not to own a "smart" TV. I don't utilize any Facebook, Apple, or Microsoft product and little of Google outside of search- and even that much I avoid. I utilize a stripped down version of Android without the proprietary Google parts and I'm trying to get away from cellular devices.
And yet, how is your life better than mine? What tangible difference has depriving corporations of your user data made in your life?
I mean, beyond allowing you to feel superior than the rest of us. That' clearly an advantage.
choose to NOT utilize products and services of companies which endanger my privacy
How are you endangered? Please, nothing hypothetical.
I work toward elimination of drivers licenses, license plates, vehicular registration, and similar.
Ah yes. The "I don't want to pay taxes so I'll couch it as a privacy issue" approach. Nice one!
I moved to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project so that I could join other like minded individuals
Hot hippie babes. Got it.
this is known for a long time already, why is everybody acting so surprised these days about all these privacy issues?
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
The Goog is gonna give to a *sweet* bonus.
I'm still waiting.