Personally, when I think of the amount of data that I think is being used by tech companies, and the amount of processing power that goes into its analysis, even the bit that I can wrap my head around, I am sickened and confused. There is much to be said about the evolution of antitrust laws and just the law of companies in general, in their relation to ethics, but also to the history of humanity. Who is to say what amount of relinquished privacy is good or bad for someone, and who is to say what the punishment is for it’s abuse? I do not know the answers to these questions, not how they are being handled, but the intensity of their implications is something I am better not obsessing over. My takeaway from Chapter 4 of Cathy O’Neil’s, Weapons of Math Destruction is doom. I was really discouraged and let down by hearing the misuse of such powerful tools from the last few chapters. Of course, this makes sense, but I’m not sure I could even imagine such widespread data privacy invasion slowing down let alone ceasing. However, I am also not sure about how I feel about the question that “only wrongdoers ought to be worried about a surveillance state”. Maybe I appreciate Papa Johns having info about when I am most likely to buy a pizza and giving me a discount, or for Amazon to suggest the best items for me to buy. I, mean really, what info could be so interesting about me in particular? Unfortunately, I think the answer to this is that the privacy invasion must exist on a grand scale to be profitable, and it does exist and is profitable. Frankly, I do not feel threatened enough yet to complain or unplug, but maybe someday I will.
