privacy is becoming even more of a privilege
I've been thinking more about the future we might be heading towards if things continue the way they do, relatively unstopped, especially in regards to data harvesting and leaks, and how digitalized our society continues to become.
I wonder if we are simply headed for a society in which there is bleak acceptance and normalization of most pieces of information being out there already. Everything you put out there voluntarily/openly (like a blog, or social media) and the things passively collected about you (via your devices) being trained on, analyzed, in some database that cannot withstand the latest AI release or whatever, together with vibecoded insecure software. Your cloud, your social media posts, your DMs, your purchase history on different platforms, health data in your eFile, the journal entries you did in that aesthetic journaling app, the poop pictures you gave to an AI app to analyze, the recordings of your Alexa and smart TV, etc. that all may or may not be combined.
We have lost so many of the previous barriers. Compared to previous times in history, many things aren't automatically private in your own home, or just saved in just people's brains anymore. Less and less things are exclusively physically in some cabinet you have to locate and get several keys for or lie your way in (social engineering) for. Digital things are written down and stored in a more accessible way, and while there is a metaphorical door, it can be broken down from anywhere in the world, and you no longer need to rely on pressuring things out of people or enduring any of the prep and risk of a physical break in. Your home can be broken into from half the planet away. All of this is making secrecy and privacy hard; it is all a technology arms race.
Data protection and privacy is only seen as a hindrance, an annoyance in the eyes of many. Unnecessary when things are going fine until they aren't. It's annoying when a website asks you to consent, but it's suddenly important when you need to know what data a company still has from you, or when there's a breach. I see privacy laws overall being weakened, employees in those teams, authorities and organizations terminated, all because data is the new gold, or an even better oil. I see the EU trying to use our rights and data as a bargaining chip for US travel and exports. As usual, human rights stand in the way of big money.
Historically, we are used to seeing the privacy of the rich as something rather physical; they move to gated communities, or land in bumfuck nowhere, to have no neighbors and peace from paparazzi and weird stalkers. They get to have certain media pulled from the shelves when it is not favorable to them. Increasingly, we have seen them remove digital content: Blog posts, Reddit threads, specific images and videos, stats tracking their whereabouts, meetings and flights.
Unfortunately, the richer you are, the more protection of your data and privacy you can buy. You can see it even now: We need to give up so much information just to travel and pass airport checks, down to social media checks or the EU bartering over sharing biometric data with the US for EU travellers. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift and Elon Musk can restrict the activity of their private jets.
They can obscure or limit their real-time location exposure, acquire surrounding properties to create buffer zones, forbid aerial photography and maritime tracking around their properties, tighten security around family information and their children’s identities, can afford security teams and compartmentalized travel arrangements, can subject others to NDA's, and influence powerful government officials - can you do the same?
As you are told you need these devices with all these data mining features, all these privacy-disrespecting apps and LLMs, all these social media accounts to be successful, or happy, or organized, or be seen and loved, or get a chance at an additional income stream or fame, they are already rich and known enough. They get to be private, not overshare on socials, and leave posting and taking calls and messages to their assistants. It's okay for them not to be overly online and active. They probably get to be exempt from their own companies' tracking for "security reasons", despite using the same products. They know the data their services mine is harmful if you have a stalker or abuser; they only care if it affects them, though.
And think of the legal repertoire they have when they have their likeness stolen, deepfakes of their voice and visual characteristics made in a way that harms them. You don't have the same options. When data leaks that makes you uninteresting to employers, you have to potentially live with that; they are the employers.
Continuing on, having any privacy will be even more of a privilege.
It is maddening, because very rich and powerful techbros like Musk, Altman, Zuckerberg, etc. get rich off of our data that we can no longer afford to protect against them, eventually always funding their dominance over us, and enabling their own exemption status in this data mining society. They benefit from collecting and analyzing information at industrial scale while attempting to selectively limit information flowing the other direction.
In their ideal little world, they don't invest it back into us; they use it to further fund AI replacement workers, weapons, and their doomsday bunkers away from us all.
It makes me wonder if we will end up in a society where people will deliver as much information up front as they deem necessary to be in control of the narrative and tell themselves they have not been spied on and instead have shared it voluntarily in an act of bravery.
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