Privacy is Dead, Now What?

734815_10151542033834705_1574502380_nEvery once in a while, one of my FB friends posts a notice that while they want to remain friends with me, they do not wish to have their updates and photos shared with everyone else and if I would just highlight, click their name and uncheck a box, everything will be hunky dory. (I am paraphrasing of course) To these people and all within the sound of my digital voice, let me be super duper clear: Privacy…is dead. It has been dead all of my life (yes, since 1970) and probably long before that to be honest depending on how much you know about the NSA’s huge banks of underground computers tagging your phone conversations by keyword and marking any suspicious ones for analysis (that was in the 1960s btw) Sorry to digress there. Let’s talk about privacy today. Here are my top five proof points why privacy is dead

  1. Smile for the Privacy Invasion — Between satellites, video surveillance and personal smartphones, there are millions of cameras everywhere. A recent study showed that the average American is photographed in some way (with or without knowledge) about 8 times per day. nike tn Experts say that every day 2.5 quintillion (18 zeros) bytes of data are uploaded to the Web and that ridiculous number just increases daily. Yes, your stuff is in there too and you probably don’t even know it.
  2. Big Ol’ Data — All of your consumer behavior (you know, when you buy stuff) is tracked and analyzed by companies around the world. around the clock In fact, there is so much data, that there is a campaign going right now to educate and graduate more data scientists to analyze all of it. Yours is in there too and you can bet money they know more about you than your parents did while you were in high school. Facebook also just launched a new Graph Search which allows you to search your friends profiles (especially photos) by keyword and dig even deeper. Oh the joy!
  3. Spam I Am — Good Lord, can marketers kill good things or what? E-mail, once the pristine white beach of just messages you cared about from people you knew is now a dirty, dark, dismal oil-and-dead-pelican-covered wasteland that you must venture into each day and hold your nose through the multiple Viagra, online dating and used office furniture solicitations. timberland pas cher Don’t worry, they (the spammers) are currently working on ways to make texting and social media posting just as horrible.
  4. Vide-Oh Crap –– So all of those smartphones also shoot videos and soon watches will too — and bracelets, earrings and it will be James Bond-like festival of how many devices can possibly shoot video soon. These videos of something you (or your company spokesperson) meant for a like-minded audience can (and definitely will) be shared with the entire world minutes after it happens (depending on the area network and its download speeds)
  5. Internet Everywhere = Privacy Nowhere — It’s a tradeoff, but hey that’s the world you live in. For example, your awesome smartphone — it’s a GPS capable of both finding super tasty frozen yogurt near you and tracking your every move with (and sometimes without) your knowledge. asics gel lyte 3 I accept the fact that my information is out there because I love the ability to get the Rams game score in the church parking lot. (God likes that too).

So privacy is dead. It’s an illusion that makes people feel better thinking it’s there but really hasn’t been for a very long time. adidas y3 boost So I say, accept it — embrace it and say — hey, my information, photos, videos and of course all of the junk I post is probably being shared by millions of people I don’t know and that’s…ok. The generation before us lived their lives thinking they had privacy, but really didn’t either.