Back in the late '70s or early '80s, the Rolling Stones had a tune called "Fingerprint File"--at least I think it was in this tune--where Jagger moaned about "all secrecy, no privacy." It's a lament that fits our times even better than then, and it fit well enough 30 years ago, that's for sure.
Just thinking about the implications of my discovery that Google, a company whose products I use continually and habitually, is tailoring results of my searches to my own individual profile it has built up based on no less than 57 variables about me that it knows and applies. I've become a Heinz 57 Variety without even knowing it. In fact, I think that all of us are transparent to hundreds of commercial enterprises. We're being sliced and diced by data mining software daily. All this data in the service of selling us more merchandise we don't need. And this is hardly the whole of it. I think this Google thing is just the tip of the iceberg. How much does the U.S. government know about me? What lists am I on?
The very notion of privacy has become almost quaint. And you know what I think? I think that even if the American people had any idea about the tons of information numerous corporate entities as well as the U.S. government has on them, and believe me, they don't--well, there would be nothing they could do about it. Let's face it: the idea of democracy itself has become quaint. This thing we go through the motions of in the U.S. Well, it's a charade. The people have control over nothing. We belong to the corporations, the government belongs to the corporations, and both know everything about us. We live in George Orwell's world, and we may as well get used to it.
2 comments:
devil's advocate, since i tend to agree with you.....but i also wonder, given what the web is, etc.....do they know only what you put on blogs, twitter, facebook, etc., which are composed to be read by strangers? or do they have access to personal snailmail letters, phone calls, etc.? thinking of the recent 'scandal,' wiener sent his pix over the net. would they have been discovered if he [a]sent them snailmail to [b] people who immediately destroyed them?
when i was young all of us lefties took for granted [perhaps with grandiose ideas of our own importance] that their---our--phones were tapped, even if we were very low-level, marching at demos and writing to the editor--lefties. but we didn't [or i didn't and i dont remember conversations with others that suggested otherwise] assume the phones of apollitical or mainstream politcal folks were tapped. were we too gullible or not gullible enough?
the other questions in terms of advertising, what do they learn about us? personal secrets, or the fact that, e.g., i use suave shampoo? the former would be horrifying to me, but the latter could be convenient---i might get inundated with fewer ads through both email and snailmail. [for awhile i was getting inundated with ads for sites with hot young babes--offensive and a total waste of the company's assets. even more idiotically i kept getting offers to enlarge my penis. it's really nice not to get those offers any more! and some ads--few, i admit--are actually helpful to me. and i don't feel very protective about the knowledge that i buy cheap clothes from haband catalogues, etc. should i?
Karen, I think they know all that you mention, plus they are tracking wherever you go on the Internet. This in itself gives them all kinds of information about you. Of course they are onto anything public, such as a blog or FB.
It's a long time since the '60s. The kind of snooping technology available now would have boggled our minds then. They--that insidious "they"--can monitor anything they want. Don't forget that cell phone calls and text messages are an open book, too.
By patterns of purchase, web sites viewed, and other data they might have on you, they can tell far more about you than you would ever want strangers knowing. Me, I don't want some damn corporation figuring out what ads to send me just on general principles. I'm a big boy. If I want to buy something, I can find it myself.
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