So my dog growing up was a very rare dog breed, and today on instagram, I see a personalized ad with that breed.
I don’t use FB or Insta, so I think they got this by connecting me with my family, who then either posted pictures of our dog, or mentioned this breed’s name. FB then tagged me as being connected to that breed to target an ad for me. Creepy as hell.
The amount surveillance we live under is absolutely shocking. Private companies are constantly building profiles of us and our contacts then try to map out our interests and behaviors in order to manipulate us. Nobody knows how all this data ends up being used or whom its shared with.
That’s what’s unique, is that before ( in the imagination of dystopian writers before the internet age ) we held this idea that surveillance needs to be active… someone is assigned to you and currently watching what you’re doing.
But what we have instead, is passive surveillance, and profile-building, and then many years later, this info can be used to sell us things, and much worse from there.
Absolutely, and results are largely the same as active surveillance in the end. The data can paint a very comprehensive picture of your daily routine, your interests, skills, living situation, people you interact with and so on. It’s very easy to imagine how such information can be used for very dark purposes indeed. This is especially concerning in places like US that are already teetering on the brink of fascism.