I know it's popular to use the "you're either the buyer, the seller, or the product" meme for this, but I think sometimes the idea that we're the product hurts more than it helps.
This is more like a case where somebody is selling something and they don't have full knowledge of what they're selling. Companies like Google came to us with a deal: give us your email business, and we'll provide it for free -- as long as we can mine the data to serve you ads. That's how we'll get paid.
But that was bullshit -- and I don't think it was the fault of the companies involved. The problem is, once you start instrumenting the internet, every activity you take online is part of some massive surveillance mechanism directed at your personal life. What started as a simple transaction between you and Google, or you and your ISP, now can involve any other organization that can get that information from those companies.
Sure, some companies are vehement about protecting your privacy, but with governments involved, it doesn't matter. They run the show. Also, this is a "weakest link" problem. Even if Google and 90% of all the other companies you deal with have some technical way of keeping others from your data, but as along as the other 10% is compromised, it doesn't matter. Keystroke readers defeat just about anything. Trans-Atlantic wiretaps allow governments of all sizes a fun playground full of data.
So the real deal isn't what these companies offered. It's more like "use the internet, and we'll track you like an animal. We'll know where you go, what opinions you have, what you eat, who your friends are, and lots more. And we'll keep that information forever"
That's not an acceptable deal. We're the seller, the product is our interaction and the history of it, but we have been seriously misinformed by the buyer about the nature of the deal involved. This is a serious problem and needs immediate resolution. Nobody directly lied to us, but we were misinformed and screwed just the same. Nobody in their right mind would have agreed to such a thing.
This is more like a case where somebody is selling something and they don't have full knowledge of what they're selling. Companies like Google came to us with a deal: give us your email business, and we'll provide it for free -- as long as we can mine the data to serve you ads. That's how we'll get paid.
But that was bullshit -- and I don't think it was the fault of the companies involved. The problem is, once you start instrumenting the internet, every activity you take online is part of some massive surveillance mechanism directed at your personal life. What started as a simple transaction between you and Google, or you and your ISP, now can involve any other organization that can get that information from those companies.
Sure, some companies are vehement about protecting your privacy, but with governments involved, it doesn't matter. They run the show. Also, this is a "weakest link" problem. Even if Google and 90% of all the other companies you deal with have some technical way of keeping others from your data, but as along as the other 10% is compromised, it doesn't matter. Keystroke readers defeat just about anything. Trans-Atlantic wiretaps allow governments of all sizes a fun playground full of data.
So the real deal isn't what these companies offered. It's more like "use the internet, and we'll track you like an animal. We'll know where you go, what opinions you have, what you eat, who your friends are, and lots more. And we'll keep that information forever"
That's not an acceptable deal. We're the seller, the product is our interaction and the history of it, but we have been seriously misinformed by the buyer about the nature of the deal involved. This is a serious problem and needs immediate resolution. Nobody directly lied to us, but we were misinformed and screwed just the same. Nobody in their right mind would have agreed to such a thing.