Why would you continue to use FB & google when you know how invasive they are regarding your personal information. Two recent conversations have made me wonder where people's thought processes are these days. Both of these conversations were with women, one a family member and another a friend. The thought processes of these women were interesting and mirror the attitude of much of the population.
As I believe knowledge is an obligation my instinct tells me I need to save these two people from what is happening to them. The information in the public domain already shows us what is going on and how it can harm us. Yet some people don't seem to care. They should!
In writing this post I hope that I will be able to articulate my thought processes better than I have in recent conversations. This is as much about me trying to come up with a solid rational explanation about why we need to be conscious of who is stealing our information.
What Are They Really Doing To You & Why?
The logical place to start this discussion is a brief outline of the problems we are facing. Laying these cards on the table should hopefully build a solid intellectual foundation from which to construct a solid argument.
The recent hacking of FB accounts by Cambridge Analytica is irrefutable. The latest figures indicate that over 800,000,000 people had their personal information on FB hacked by Cambridge Analytica. That is less than one in every 10 men, woman and children on the planet. Are you one of them? FB could have done something about it yet they chose to do nothing making them complicit in the theft in my eyes.
Why should you care? You don't commit crimes, you have nothing to hide! This conversation is not about what you may or may not have to hide. It is much more fundamental than that. Your personal information belongs to you and nobody else! When you sign up to services you agree to give your information to that organization in exchange for a service. When you post on FB they own that content and in return they give you a glorified inbox and a feed.
But that is not a fair deal. Your information is worth enormous amounts of money to FB and other groups. Much more than a glorified inbox and feed. So the scales are already tipped in FB's favor. Yet it gets worse. FB decides what you can and can't see. They are filtering you and your information. For what nefarious ends are they doing this? They are using this tactic to swing opinions, votes, buying power and propaganda.
Now with the hacking scandal all that information is now in the hands of third parties on the web who have absolutely no right to this information. You never agreed to sharing your information with these people! That was never part of the Terms & Conditions you agreed to. FB with all its billions of dollars has failed you and nobody seems to be being punished.
So now databases are being compiled on you without your consent. These databases define you to the eugenicists who run our world.
- Are you a dissident who believes the official narrative of 9/11 was a lie? Imprison you!
- Have you been sick recently with lots of get well messages in your FB inbox? Now the insurance companies know this and your premiums will go up.
- Who will you vote for? Now they can decide what information you have access to so they can manipulate your opinions.
- Are you financially vulnerable? Now the banks can see into your life and know when to attack you to steal your assets.
- Against vaccines? Now you are on a list somewhere!
- Your purchasing choices are being recorded so that they can market products to you more effectively. It's not just you though. Your children, extended family all fall victim to the algorithms based on your purchasing history.
The list of transgressions against your freedom and liberty are myriad regardless of whether you have something to hide or not! What is worse is this information lives forever on the servers. It will outlive you yet you never agreed to share this information with anonymous third parties on the internet! This entire process was set up to be a scam from the beginning!
You are no more than a dumb animal who has been left behind in the cyber information race not understanding the significance of what is happening to you. Make no mistake the people orchestrating this campaign against you believe that you are a product to be cataloged, categorized, marketed to and manipulated.
Freedom is an inalienable right that we are born with and from that moment onwards we must fight against the people who are trying to take it away from us. Freedom is indivisible! You are either free or you are not. You can't be just a little bit free!
This is a fight for the most basic and positive human right - freedom!
The Bizarre Arguments For FB & Google
I recently was in touch with a family member who will be visiting a country I spent a long time living in. I would love to share information and knowledge about this amazing place with her but I insisted that I don't use FB or Gmail any more but she could open and encrypted email account or messaging service and I would be happy to help in any way I could.
Her response was very worrying. She said that she didn't wish to have another form of communication except FB and that she understood my attitude so that was fine. We just wouldn't communicate. How bizarre. She didn't want another channel of communication she'd prefer to stick to FB where all of her communications are subject to analysis, storage and manipulation. I don't think she understands the danger she is in and I find that worrying. I understand having limited channels of communication but I want them to be as secure as possible. My communication belongs to me and my interlocutor and nobody else!
Another conversation with a friend recently showed me another aspect of this. I was explaining my detest for google and my friend said:
"No it's good because they know what I like and show me things that interest me like new kinds of makeup!"
Again I don't think my friend understands what is happening to her. They are building profiles on her without her consent. Sure she sees new makeups sooner but they are only the makeup products that google wants her to see. No doubt connected to those who really own google through a myriad of shell and holding companies. What about all the independent makeup companies producing better products which are healthier and more ethical. If she just listens to google she may never find these superior products. Fortunately this doesn't apply to me as I don't use makeup! 😉
When we realize that 1% of the people own the majority of this world we understand this is all connected. Small pieces of bait are given to us as incentives but the real directives behind this data harvesting are much more nefarious.
The fact remains that we never agreed to share our information with third parties and yet that is what has happened!
What Are The Causes Of This Apathy?
This is a much harder question to analyze. Yet I will try to put down a few thoughts briefly here:
Vanity/Insecurity - I grew up in an age that did not have these invasive services. I can see a big difference these days. The desire to have our peers approve our actions and tell us how amazing our lives are, how beautiful we are, how witty and smart we are is prevalent all over the networks. I have met Instagram people and then looked at their accounts. The day they spent with me when viewed on Instagram was nothing like what really happened. The propaganda agents in our world have hundreds of years of research that they use against us. We by comparison only have a few decades or less of knowledge. For more confirmation on this look into the history of the Tavistock Institute!
Ignorance - Even though the story about FB's hacking by Cambridge Analytica is now in the public domain it has been massaged and spun. It seems that people think that it was a problem previously but has now been rectified. Rubbish! A third party was allowed to access your information and now they have it. They are using it against you in myriad ways but fundamentally if you believe in democracy you should be outraged. Hacking your personal information was a way to swing votes in a democracy. I believe our democracies are mostly shams but recently we had a historic event in Malaysia where the votes enacted the people's wishes even with the gerrymandering, vote rigging and online manipulation that was happening. The result was overwhelming and the people enacted a change. These practices of manipulating the people and their votes has no place in any democracy yet this is exactly what google and FB facilitate.
Apathy - "I don't care, it's all f#^ked anyway, nothing will change... yawn, lets go back to sleep" No way! This argument is so defeatist that I suspect that it was developed by the spin doctors themselves. We must fight to maintain our integrity in life and information. This eternal fight for liberty has now become digital as well as physical. We must keep up to date to have any hope of defending ourselves against this attack and make no mistake about it, attack is the right word. Those who feel this way are already falling into the trap of being sheeple!
If we don't defend ourselves we are going to suffer. So much of our information is already fully captured and stored. It is there for those who control that information to use against us whenever they like. Mostly that is now! We must fight because this issue is real and if we give up our generation, our children's and grandchildren's generations will all end up as slaves to the 1% of the world who own them like cattle!
Where Are We Now?
Have I missed any other issues? I would be grateful to hear your feedback as I can tell this is a conversation I will be having more and more in the future. A well articulated and researched position is critical to making my point quickly and succinctly so that this conversation doesn't have to take up the entire dinner! 😉
More and more I am applauding the few of my friends who never opened a FB account! Bravo!
At the moment I use:
- Steemit - to express my thoughts and learn new things! 😉
- Telegram/Signal - encrypted messaging
- Startpage - web browsing
- Protonmail - encrypted email
I know that if they really want to know what you are saying they can but why make it easy for them. I choose to write these words and post them on the blockchain but I don't authorize all of my communications to be captured and categorized by unknown entities.
We can make massive positive changes for everyone in our world just by ditching these dodgy services! To bastardize a famous marketing tactic: Just Ditch It!
I don't necessarily trust the channels I listed above but I know this is a constantly evolving space and I would love to hear any feedback and insights you may have! 😉
Jockey votes 4: @teamsteem, @ausbitbank
& loves @canadian-coconut, @chron, @mammasitta, @samstonehill, @sift666, @v4vapid
It's funny because I just assumed Facebook was taking the information and selling it before all this. I assumed everyone else realised this as well. I guess I was wrong.
This is also only what they got caught doing. I'm sure there are more companies and more behind the scenes deals that haven't come to light yet.
I couldn't agree more mate! 😃 I also assumed the same, so I had already stopped using FB. However that was just you and I assuming (or knowing from our hearts) what was going on.
Now that the hack has been acknowledged and is public I am surprised why more people are not turning away from FB. I believe that FB should be taken to court and have criminal or negligence proceedings taken against them all over the world. That's only fair enough if you ask me!
Thank you for your comment it's nice to be able to interact!
I left facebook a long ago!
I have a few bogus accounts only for traveling. I never post anything on them and only rarely open them anyway! Good for you. Great name Followed and UPvoted with pleasure! 😉
So true - I used to look at fakebook once a year, but these days I can't be arsed - my make-up is hopeless though...
Brilliant! You are so funny when you put your makeup on drunk! 😝
When you're not drunk you do a good job with your mane though:
😉😉
I feel that you and I and everybody feel that social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram take to much time and our energy out of our lives and them making us feel like we have to race with anyone that does great on that platform to be accepted that's why I'm slowly quitting social but not platforms like steemit or wiki where you can get the info and learn from it and to make allies, friends with the same attitude to be humble together and to grow to make a impact.
Excellent comment! 😀
I only use fb for watching events besides it's useless
Even if people who see the real face of facebook advice other, they just ignore thinking what would facebook do with a bunch of photos and some information. They have no idea what facebook is collecting they just give away everything that fb asks.