So much data has been spent complaining about how smart devices are spying on you. There are many bloggers that I have a lot of respect for that say they will never own a smart device because those devices will listen to every word you say.
As for me, I think that ship sailed years ago. Many people stay away from Social media because it spies on you and sells your information. Guess what? Do you have a cell phone? It spies on you. So do frequent shopper cards. Your email provider does, too. As does your credit card provider, your bank, and your ISP.
I own my own business and I advertise online. One of the features offered is a "pixel" campaign. You know those pictures and memes that get passed around the Internet? Companies offer the ability to add a pixel to those picture files that acts as a tracking beacon. Every time someone looks at that picture, the pixel executes a program that mines information about the person viewing the picture.
Even if you refuse all of that, there are companies who are tracking your shopping habits by tracking your purchase history by your credit or debit card numbers. So you say, never mind, I will avoid using customer loyalty cards, credit cards, a cell phone, an email account, and the Internet. That will not work either, because there are companies using facial recognition and license plate readers to track you as well.
Data mining is the new gold rush. Most companies have large databases of information on people, and they sell that information to anyone who wants to pay for it. Big brother is watching you. It is now impossible to live in this country without someone somewhere having the ability to track your every move.
1 comment:
If you'll pardon me being repetitive, always ask "and then what?"
Search for "pixel blockers". They're built into a lot of applications now and they're available from the free market, too.
For every monitoring method, there are countermeasures. Just like the military world where there are countermeasures and counter-countermeasures.
Case in point is Android. The whole reason Google spawned the Android OS was because they were losing the ability to track people everywhere without it. Now we regularly read about Android apps lying about not using that information.
Of course, there are always trades. A company tracking you to send you customized spam is annoying but not as potentially ominous as a big government trying to track you, and not as big a direct threat as a thug getting your account numbers.
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