Every one of us has a device in our hands or pockets that does not belong to us… It belongs to the big tech firms
You are walking around with a phone glued to you 24/7 which is simultaneously the means of gathering data on you and the means of controlling you. Think about it…
Your phone is streaming a continuous real time update about all aspects of your life to databases you have no control over
The real problem is the phones… You are constantly pushed to have location services on. [Tech companies] know where you are, who you are with, what you ate, what you spent, wherever you are on the Earth
Maja Pantic – Head of Samsung’s AI Lab
Video conferencing is now becoming the norm for even the most private meetings. But how many of you compromised your security by sending a link and a password to a Zoom meeting in an email or a text message?
Email is not encrypted. It can be intercepted or your account hacked. Big tech companies like Google and Apple have a long history of scanning your emails for metadata and allow 3rd party companies access your data
All of that is going on your profiles and your permanent records. Do you really want anyone to know so much about you? Even your sexual preferences and political beliefs are being recorded (and also predicted by AI with alarming accuracy)
Social media companies and service providers store your data, metadata and keep logs on their servers
Did you know that all of your Internet activity is recorded and kept by your service providers for 1 year by law and any government agency can access it without a warrant under the Investigatory Powers Act?
Start with your location history
Google users log in to google.com/maps/timeline
Apple users can see on your phone what apple sees directly if you have the settings right (watch the video)
You can download your location data fully from google.com/takeout and privacy.apple.com
Look up cookies on your phone and how long they last for
Cookies track you across websites, collecting data and can last up to 50 years
How is it they are so rich when they offer their services for free? Where are all those billions coming from? Your data…
All of that data on you is packaged up into profiles which any business or organisation that wants to target you will pay good money for. Google still makes most of its $Billions a year from advertising sales
If a company came to you and said “Fill in this form with all your personal information because we can sell it for $39,” no rational person would agree to it.
Rob Shavell – Cofounder of the privacy company Abine. Source
Even ordering food or a cab using Uber or Deliveroo – they know your eating habits and when and where you take cabs
If you get your shopping delivered every week from a major supermarket they hold detailed profiles on you and use AI to sell you more products
Big tech needs your data to train it’s AI (Artificial Intelligence). The more data they have, the smarter the AI becomes
AI plays a big part in analysing, mining and then predicting your behaviour, preferences, likely hood to buy or act
Amazon’s Alexa, MS Cortona, Google assistant, Siri etc are all the result of AI trained on your data and now talking back to you. Your own personal AI…
The latest social AI developments have shown just how advanced they are already. From Chat GPT writing essays and code, to Hollywood actors and writers striking over AI replacing them. But this is just the beginning…
Few people actually read those 600 pages of Terms & Conditions before using an app or online services
They just click ‘agree’ and sign away their privacy. Not because they want to but because they would not be able to understand it all anyway, and that’s deliberate
The data mining industry could not exist if everyone really understood it clearly
The business model of Free is surveillance
Shoshana Zuboff – Author of Surveillance Capitalism
Big tech companies design their apps and services using addiction principles to keep you engaged and manipulate your brain with psychology
You are dependent on the ecosystems your phone accesses. You put your whole life on it
They also use vendor lock in techniques to make it very hard to leave or even switch to another provider
If the product is free then you are the product
The Social Dilemma Documentary
So severe is this problem that a former Google Design Ethicist (Tristan Harris) quit the company, started ‘The Centre for Humane Technology’ and made the documentary: The Social Dilemma
Governments are supposed to regulate the industry but instead have gone the same way with mass surveillance and introducing laws contravening human rights
Govts around the world are implementing surveillance technology at lightning speed and no one is holding them to account
In 2014 Edward Snowden revealed how GCHQ in the UK was working together with the NSA in the US and 3 others countries unlawfully monitoring, recording and intercepting internet activity and communications of their own citizens
After being revealed they quickly moved to create laws giving them unprecedented powers
The Investigatory Powers Act is being challenged in the courts for contravening the European Convention on Human Rights
Govts in Europe and the US are trying to ban encryption with new laws. The latest being ‘Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act 2020’ which would require services offering encrypted communications or devices to provide back doors
AI’s surveillance capability offers startling new ways for governments to monitor and control their citizens.
China is one of the front runners in exploiting this technology for surveillance purposes. For example, in Xinjiang and Tibet, China is using AI-powered technology to combine multiple streams of information – including individual DNA samples, online chat history, social media posts, medical records, and bank account information – to observe every aspect of individuals’ lives.
Beijing is also rolling out what it calls “social credit scores” into mainstream society. These scores use big data derived from public records, private technology platforms, and a host of other sources to monitor, shape, and rate individuals’ behavior as part of a broader system of political control. This includes where you can go and what you can access
In June of 2020 China passed a new National Security Law in Hong Kong criminalising a range of activities and giving law enforcement agencies powers to carry out sweeping surveillance and censorship measures
Not only is the law designed to silence the Hong Kong protest movement, but it brings Hong Kong inside China’s Great Firewall – a closed, censored version of the internet that blocks any apps and platforms which fail to comply with its demands for back door data access and censorship. Big Tech firms are already likely complying but you will never know because the law forbids them from telling you
Now Govts are getting into bed with the big tech companies, giving massive data sharing contracts to Google, Microsoft, & Amazon, and AI firms Palantir and Faculty
Govts are contracting big tech to build their new databases which will combine all of your medical records with your identity
Open democracy had force out of the UK govt who got the deals and the extent of their contracts. And at the last minute they made changes to the contracts because of the demand for transparency
Did you get a message from your GP about joining up your electronic health and care records? But there was no opting out when you followed the link for guidance on what to do if you did not want to participate…
AI need big data to train remember. How about an entire populations medical records? How much value could that have to a private corporation – its almost immeasurable. You were never asked
It’s not rocket data science to understand how easy it would be to link your databases to corporate databases and profiles
This is the holy grail of both commercial and government organisations
Your data is being gathered, analysed, mined, sold, resold & profiled by corps and govts
You are worth more to a commercial company as a product than a product
To a government you are: predictable, censorable & controllable
In summary your phone gives enough information to provide an incredibly detailed status on you, and on that basis can influence you, predict you, restrict or exclude your access to services and movements, and remove choice
How would you feel in future if you wake up in the morning and if your phone doesn’t give you a ‘green’ status you won’t be permitted to enter your gym, or workplace, or go to a restaurant, or even shopping?
What if you are not allowed to get on public transport? Travel to see you family? Go on holiday abroad?
THAT MEANS YOUR FREEDOM
It’s easier than you think, and getting easier by the day
None of the above is possible without you giving up your privacy. Your freedom depends on privacy
Not just individual freedom but freedom of ideas and expression. Commercial companies need privacy too. Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are crucial to many businesses. Journalists need privacy to function too
There is no need to wait for regulation which will never come and could never really solve the problem
You own your data and you can regulate where it goes and how it is used
There are alternatives to big tech owned software, platforms and ecosystems. Open source software is the way forward
You can start taking your privacy and freedom back right now by doing these 3 things. And that’s just the beginning…
Private encrypted messaging, calls and emails
Move your friends and important contacts over first
Threema is the safest commercially available messaging and calls app which can be used completely anonymously without a phone number
Proton mail provide a free fully encrypted email service hosted in Switzerland. App and web options
Open source and supported by paying for extra features if you need them
A smartphone without Google, or Apple following you around
Often referred to as a degoogled phone
Privacy features and security features built in to both the operating system and the device
Enjoy all the benefits of a smart phone while keeping your privacy
Stop using and supporting big tech and govts ecosystems
Learn about phone privacy – read the How it Works section
Quit the addictions – start by turning off notifications and read the Changing Habits section
Use Open Source non corporate apps and services which can be openly inspected and audited – Read the Privacy Apps section
Learn about online privacy. These are two great sites
restoreprivacy.com (Europe)
Use a VPN service like Nord or Perfect Privacy
Take a digital self defence workshop
Don’t use new systems that don’t respect your privacy
Move away from mobile phone networks
There has never been a more urgent time than now, and ironically a better time than now to take back your privacy and protect your freedoms – start now!
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