The Man Knows Too Much

I love Facebook, and I sporadically love Twitter, and I love posting my pictures on Instagram.  I take Facebook quizzes - not as much as I used to, but I want to be in that tiny percentage of people that are soooo smart! Then I share that I found that c in the field of o's in record time - which by the way, I think pretty much everyone does.

So, you're probably asking yourself "Why do I care?"  Well, I'm trying to make a larger point here - the fact is I've willingly, if not knowingly, shared literally everything about my life online, as have all of you who use these sites.  Not only that, but all of my data has been gathered up to paint a picture of me that can be sold to marketers who want to 'target' me for sales and quite possibly tailoring what I see to be more or less expensive than what you see.

I hear you saying it now, "Blah blah blah, tell me something I don't know."  Did you know your cell phone or your laptop can be used to spy on you at any time and you might not even know it?  I'll share something - I take my iPad to the bathroom sometimes.  I'm addicted to the game Bejeweled and while some of you might take in an old fashioned newspaper, I take my iPad in with me and play games.  Some people lay in the tub and read books on their iPad while they bathe.  Or just their cell phones.  Guess what both of these devices have?  That's right, a camera that can be turned on and directed at you at any time.  Your laptop, your iPad, your cell phone - all can be turned on by someone you don't know at any time and take pictures of you or listen in on your conversations.

Google reads your email.  Pretty much all email services read your email.  Cookies follow you everywhere even if you sign on to a different computer.  Your patterns are quickly recognized.  Ever been at work and checked out the web?  Amazing how quickly the web figures out who you are based on where you go and what you look up.  Go to Amazon and look something up on your lunch hour - I bet Amazon realizes almost immediately that it's you.

The point is you are leaving a digital footprint that means at any point in time anyone with access to that data knows exactly where you are and probably what you're doing and who you're with (you checked in on Facebook or even just have location services engaged on your cell phone).

A year ago I downloaded a book on to my Kindle titled "Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance" by Julia Agwin.  This past week on my beach vacation I finally started reading it.  By the way, the NSA knows I downloaded this book, and they probably know when I started reading it as well.  In the book Agwin talks about all the ways our data is collected and sold, to the point that there is more data on each and every one of us, including all of our associations with each other than the East German Stasi could ever have dreamed of collecting.  Agwin has a Sasi expert weigh in on what we're doing who makes the comment "The Stasi would have loved this!"  Yay for us.  As the book goes along Agwin works on detangling herself from all of the tracking that goes on.

I'm at that point right now - I'm in the realization that my data is being bought and sold, from the government to marketers and advertisers and then back to the government again.  I don't think the government should ever have this much data on its citizens without first getting a warrant and while we've willingly hopped on to the digital network and freely provided our data maybe it's time to wake up and figure out how to stem the tide a bit.  Abuse is possible at any time and I'd prefer not to fall victim to that.  I've never won the lottery despite wishing really hard, and maybe I'll never be wrapped up in a digital dragnet, but you never know.

It's incredibly difficult to give up on the world of digital connection.  I get together once a month with a group of women I've known since Kindergarten and we wouldn't be connected if not for Facebook.  I am involved as a volunteer with animal rescue and social networking and email make saving lives a lot more effective.  There is almost nothing I don't do online, and it's all being tracked and collected.  From shopping, to banking to reading the news, engaging with friends, searching job sites and other activities, I'm online.  That includes this blog.  

I have started using DuckDuckGo to search online.  No tracking and storing of my search data there.  I'm searching for an email provider who won't read my emails and I want to use a browser that doesn't track and store data either.  It's just a start, but it's better than nothing.  The man knows too much even if he doesn't know what he knows.