Never have I being so happy to write a post like this.
So, I finally watched the movie “The Great Hack 2019” and I’m close to making sense of our current existence – I mean this present and physical time.
I am a huge humanist because as the idea of feminism is becoming distorted, the general purpose of that cause is the fight of human rights and of course, we are all humans.
In relation to the subject matter, I have always worried if I was sharing too much on the internet or too little. (I mean you can’t blame an upcoming writer for trying to be visible but that is that)
On watching this movie and reading more afterwards, I discovered a shocking horror, which is, technology might just be the death of us.
This post is not intended to incite fear or panic but stand as a form of awareness on how much value our data is.
Now, the crazy part of this value of data isn’t just from us. Do we remember the time we’ve had to answer questions and give some “desirable” apps permission to access our Facebook?
Evenven if you haven’t done that, your friend must have somewhere, somehow and that affects you, as that person’s friend.
I can swear to you that the information revealed is nothing compared to that concealed.
This movie originated from research on data by a professor of the Parsons School of design and after 18 months, guess what? No success.
Following the movie, I got wind of a list of its client, you can imagine my shock when I saw Nigeria. I mean! The 2015 election which Jonathan won, was with the help of the company called Cambridge analytica.
As Professor Carroll continued his investigation, he under-covered more reasons to fear that maybe, just maybe, there was more to everything that actually meets the eye.
We, the oblivious, saw this materialize in the Facebook saga. I don’t think a lot of people pried to know the Genesis of why that tribunal was set up.
I for one, have been in situations where I go online and just answer questionnaires, download apps and give these apps access.
Many of us, if not all of us barely read the terms and conditions and just click away.
If you pay close attention to the activities of your phone, you’d see that something you’ve questioned or searched, comes in form of an ad.
I have asked about this and the answer I got was Artificial Intelligence, which gave me cause worrying, seeing that I do not know a life without technology.
Back to the movie, Brittany, another whistle-blower and who happened to be a top executive, explained the psychology scheme of data processing.
How information is created specifically for every individual and can be tweaked to make us change our minds and do that which is intended for.
You can imagine my head… Blown!
And so, I come back home, back to reality and compare notes, facts and everything possible… Politics, feminism, social rights and the truth is data is valuable.
A line caught my attention and it goes “In the year 2018, data became more valuable than oil” which is no jokes, seeing and gauging how much the top tech companies are worth.
Simple questions to validate my point are, can you do without Google?
How many people use Facebook?
Instagram?
Twitter?
LinkedIn?
Triller?
The list goes on and the general fact is, upon the download of these apps, nobody cares to check the terms and conditions.
Nobody has time to read that long, and we sign away, whatever.
Even in law, it is unwise to sign a document without checking it.
But hey! My most valid worry is this, Professor Carroll didn’t get his data because he wanted to know how much data was compiled about him & that is just one person.
Insignificant if I must say, so imagine how much information these companies have about us.
Personally, I begin to wonder if the right way is to completely go “Cave Man” or try to control how much information I put into my phone, tab or laptop.
Also, how much information I share online.
Fun fact is, my friends who are in top tier tech level jokingly advise me about the amount of information I share of myself online.
Even the Chinese have a whole different search engine and chatting platform.
Data rights has just joined the league of things I need to learn more of.
If anyone has more information about this, I am more than happy to learn.
Love and light!
