Are You the Consumer, or the Product?
by The Piano Guy
Do you pay to use Google? Do you pay to use Facebook? If you don't advertise on these services, the answer is probably no. That then means that you are the "product," rather than the "consumer," even if you think you're just a consumer.
Why does this have hacker ramifications?
Because to be something worth being consumed by the people who are buying the product (the advertisers), you have to give up privacy. This is probably apparent to most folks that would read this fine publication, but it isn't apparent to your friends and relatives, and you may want to give them this article so you can say that you are not the only person who is concerned about these issues (since they may think you're paranoid already). Further, you may not be aware of the depth to which this goes, which may make you rethink some of your practices - or at least tell those you care about.
"But I don't do anything illegal, why should I care about my privacy?" might be what you hear back from some people. You may even think it yourself, especially since knowing how to do things that are illegal doesn't mean that we actually do illegal things. As an aside, I'd be curious to know how many of us subscribe to the motto "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." My hunch is that it is a much higher percentage than what general society perceives.
The reason to be concerned about privacy is because what is legal and reasonable today may not always be. Google will hold on to your data forever, and there is no guarantee that they will be able to keep it from being used for purposes we would consider evil today, either by computer-savvy villains or governments.
Allow me to use myself as an example.
The Creator of the Universe gifted me with many things, but in this go-around heterosexuality was not among them. I've already received government-sanctioned discrimination based on this; I was denied a TOP SECRET clearance in the 1980s because I was perceived as a blackmail threat. The laws have changed, but they could change back. And they could get worse. Things could degrade in society to the point that I could have a similar issue of being blackballed because I write for this fine publication, or you could be for having read it at one time.
In the United States, our government, for all of its flaws, could be a lot worse. There are elements in our current government that are trying to take it in that direction. If enough wise and thoughtful people don't get out and vote (hint hint), it could go there. Think about this: George W. Bush won by 538 votes in Florida. Think of the (((wars))), the (((financial ruin))), and the (((many dead worldwide))) that ensued because of this man's policies. 538 people made the difference, and we're still paying for it.
If you live outside of the United States, but in a country where you can read this magazine, your government too, for all its flaws, could be a lot worse.
Having established why privacy is important to everyone, let's discuss how Google violates your privacy on a regular basis.
Recently, a man was arrested because while Google was searching through his Gmail for keywords to know which ads to push to him, they found child porn in his email. Google goes so far as to have staff look at every picture in email, and also has a hash of previously found porn to aid in flagging potential offensive content. They report it, as they should. 1
Now please know that I am glad that they caught a consumer of child pornography, and that I never endorse illegal activity. I don't even endorse engaging in "victimless crimes" or "things that should be legal anyway." That's not the point. How comfortable are you with having every single thing you send be reviewed and stored forever?
"But the NSA stores everything anyway, so what's the difference?" It is the difference between crossing the street in front of your home at 2:00 am after looking both ways and dancing drunk and naked on the freeway during rush hour. You're much more likely to get "hit" if Google is used to find you.
"O.K., so I'll encrypt my emails." That will guarantee that the NSA stores them forever. 2 "I'm careful, and I know what I'm doing." Do you love your parents? Your siblings? Your friends who aren't as 1337 as you? Do you take time to teach them how to protect themselves?
Will they do so? Do they get the cost/benefit here that you do? Help them do the simple things, like not using Gmail or Google Docs for anything that they would not want to be permanently archived and analyzed, potentially even after they are dead and gone.
The level of surveillance is increasing all of the time.
Facebook has a similar business model to Google in that they are both advertising companies that use the Internet to provide information to their customers (the advertisers) about their product (that would be you). Facebook is trying to force everyone to use Facebook Messenger. I don't know if/when they will remove messaging functionality from the phone app, and I don't know what they are going to do on the desktop, but if you read the TOS for the Messenger app, you'll most likely not install it. 3 But, your relatives and friends will. Smile, as you will potentially be on candid surveillance.
Ultimately, if we don't get out the vote, and keep it out, we won't keep our government. If we don't keep our government, "tools" like Google and Facebook will be used against us in more insidious ways than we can imagine. With computer-savvy villains on the loose, we have even more reason to be concerned, even if we keep our government intact.
Beyond voting, the only thing we can do is use safer services in more appropriate ways, to be less of a "product" for the "consumers."
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