Tokage

I'm glad you're aware of this, but it's been going on for a while. China gets shafted because they willingly do things they shouldn't when it comes to data mining, and using fancy ways to do it too.

Applications that have nothing to do with voice ask for access to your microphone in order to use the app. Products like the knockoff Philips Hue Lightbulbs from china , which use an app to control them, apparently need to send feedback information to their servers in China, for what? I've actually looked into Li-Fi (light Fidelity) several years ago, and even wrote a paper on it to know it's not that hard to send data back to the network without your consent. Look forward to that in your airplanes this year or the next, as Li-Fi is finally taking off it seems.

Google themselves are getting to be stagnant in popularity that they have spent more time finding ways to receive revenue through data collected (and then selling) by things like timelines of your day (I find it in poor taste for them to send me notifications to confirm whether I went to this place or not, let alone how the fuck they knew I was there), whether or not you go to their recommended spots to eat/hang out, or simply taking the route home from work/school they recommended you take more than once.

I mean the whole Driver's License thing with the FBI/ICE is still making me cringe since things like a selfie you take can be used to locate you or your loved ones if they are being investigated. Yet you, the poor schmuck, think that tagging yourself is a good idea because they told you it was.

Yeah, I'm aware it's nothing new under the sun,  might as well be regarded as somewhat of an open secret, but it's good that some Google worker had the guts to bring this shit out into the open so it has at least ascended  from the tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist realm' into the ''we know about it and wow it sure sucks but hey, we'll  all completely forget about this shit by next week anyway'' realm in the public eye. 

I  still remain convinced Facebook must be doing something similar, in fact probably just about every massive company that doesn't financially charge you for using its services in any way does. After all, if you're not paying with your money, you'll still have to pay -somehow-, and what better way to do that than by paying with your data? The number of people I've heard the ''I was talking about [x] with a friend and suddenly the next moment I opened up the app I got an ad for [x] without having searched for it!'' story from regarding FB is quite high, but to my knowledge FB has never admitted anything regarding THAT yet, despite all their other privacy breaches that have come to light so far.

As for the stuff with the 'smart' lightbulbs, it reminds me of those past scares about children's toys with wi-fi connections, 'smart' fridges, 'smart' televisions, sex toys with wi-fi support etc. that could all theoretically be exploited by hackers (or, as it turns out now, just by corporations in general) to unlawfully collect people's data, spy on people, etc.  Considering the amount of always-online  tech  we're surrounded by at all times at this point I feel like there is legitimately no way to entirely avoid this kinda shit anymore. There was even some controversy in the Dutch media recently regarding one of the biggest banks of the country having some plans to start providing its clients with targeted ads based on their spending habits, but so far it looks like that plan's gonna get shot down.

We're basically living in the lamest cyberpunk universe

As much as I get shit for this, I always blame it on user negligence because it always comes back to that. Yes the companies should be held liable/responsible, but they never held a gun to your head. That soon became you due to what society now deems "normal" when it comes to social media and how no one should be left behind in tech since it's so easy to jump on the wagon.

We have been conditioned to be as lazy as possible when it comes to our attention spans, free-thinking, and consumption of media. Turning on notifications, tracking, and agreeing to license agreements without so much as looking into them cuz that way we have more time for things during the day. What better way to bore/trick you since your attention span is no more than 5 min or less now.

We have given up too much for convenience that soon the next generation is going to think this is just normal, and these are people that potentially will consume media and use apps 1.5X faster than those who we think are pros at it already. The last thing on their mind will be what happens when they put the phone down, since most of us now don't even bother to end apps or set privacy settings to log off/turn off when not using them.

Eh.