I work in software development, and a lot of us have known about this sort of tech for over a decade, so this article doesn't seem surprising to me. "They" know everything you are doing on the internets. Literally, everything.
Hell, one of my colleagues used to work on software that tracked people by their cellphone around shopping malls. You don't need to install an app or anything. Just have your phone on while you walk around a mall or department store. "They" know every store you hung out in and how long it took you to make a purchasing decision. If you have enough apps installed on your phone they can cross reference the in-store knowledge with social media and online shopping preferences too. Don't bother to brace yourselves because the dystopian future of Minority Report already happened and we're in it.
The thing is, when I tell my non-dev friends about what's going on, at first they are academically scared, and then they don't care. It's like all the CCTV in England, people figure as long as you're not a criminal, what can it hurt? And anyway, isn't it a "feature" if you receive a private email from your real estate that you landed the new apartment, and then ads all over the internet start advertising moving companies, and then when you spent half an hour browsing the couch section at Ikea but go home without buying anything then the first ad you see on Facebook is for couches? Convenience! Buy! Consume! Obey!
Leveraging that data for targeted political marketing is just the next step. And given how many people prefer to live exclusively in their echo chambers, you could argue the computer knows better anyway. The computer knows what propaganda you want to hear. The computer knows who you want to vote for before you even enter the booth. Cut out the middle man and let the computer figure it out. It's Silicon Valley's wet dream, a global technocracy. Who cares about ideology or social justice as long as people keep getting fed all the stuff they want. Politicians/technicians just need to maintain the Skinner Box, right?
I should probably not post here when I am as drunk as I am right now.
Hell, one of my colleagues used to work on software that tracked people by their cellphone around shopping malls. You don't need to install an app or anything. Just have your phone on while you walk around a mall or department store. "They" know every store you hung out in and how long it took you to make a purchasing decision. If you have enough apps installed on your phone they can cross reference the in-store knowledge with social media and online shopping preferences too. Don't bother to brace yourselves because the dystopian future of Minority Report already happened and we're in it.
The thing is, when I tell my non-dev friends about what's going on, at first they are academically scared, and then they don't care. It's like all the CCTV in England, people figure as long as you're not a criminal, what can it hurt? And anyway, isn't it a "feature" if you receive a private email from your real estate that you landed the new apartment, and then ads all over the internet start advertising moving companies, and then when you spent half an hour browsing the couch section at Ikea but go home without buying anything then the first ad you see on Facebook is for couches? Convenience! Buy! Consume! Obey!
Leveraging that data for targeted political marketing is just the next step. And given how many people prefer to live exclusively in their echo chambers, you could argue the computer knows better anyway. The computer knows what propaganda you want to hear. The computer knows who you want to vote for before you even enter the booth. Cut out the middle man and let the computer figure it out. It's Silicon Valley's wet dream, a global technocracy. Who cares about ideology or social justice as long as people keep getting fed all the stuff they want. Politicians/technicians just need to maintain the Skinner Box, right?
I should probably not post here when I am as drunk as I am right now.
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