…at least not any more than absolutely necessary. People should understand the simple fact that everything they do online gets recorded somewhere to some extent. Privacy controls are weak, and people of all colors scramble all day long every day to cash in on that data. From legitimate sellers trying to keep your pantry stocked to electronically-induced criminal thieves and everybody in between wants your money, one way or the other.
I’m not suggesting any sort of off-grid prepper extremes. Just be aware that you are being tracked everywhere you go online, and droves of people are vying to use that information for profit. Hell, depending on your Google Map™ settings, you are literally being tracked in meatspace. That may or may not be important to you, from a privacy perspective. Personally, I kinda like reviewing my whereabouts every month, and I’m not hiding from anyone.
Easy Internet-enabled money is hard to resist. Some types of online activity like social media and the entertainment stuff is designed specifically for marketing purposes – nothing else. Politics falls into that bucket. Ever wonder why the FAANGs aren’t doing more to protect their business?
RELATED CONTENT: I want My iTV.
“But look at that: Social media is now shot through with sketches and music videos made by rich personal brands and consumed by a passive audience that gets iron-skilleted with ads. The convergence I once cheered on has reinvented a medium that reminds me of something from my youth. It’s almost like network TV. Like the idiot box. Like a “vast wasteland,” as the FCC chair called American television, in 1961.”
Google pays nearly $392 million to settle sweeping location-tracking case.
