An IBM study from 2017, outlined that 90% of all the data in the world back then had been created in the last two years. We generated about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every 2 days. This is attributed to the internet revolution/ Iot that has us at a precipice of unprecedented change. Unfortunately, even though that data is about you, it belongs to the company collecting the data. The more we get connected, the more data we generate.
The wealthiest companies on the globe are now tech companies, the reason being that data surpassed oil in its value, to become the most valuable asset on earth & they have found ways of exploiting your personal data to make huge profit margins. They collect huge amounts of data to accurately predict your behavior online/offline, building a digital profile of you as an individual. This is then sold to any buyer that can afford it, who use it to push their agenda, products. In the info age, you are now the commodity. While you might not care about who collects your data, sometimes it can be & has been used against you without even realizing it. Let’s have a look at one of the ways, that data was used against its owners.
In 2016 US elections/Brexit, Kenyan elections & Ghana, Lithuania among others. The campaign teams that won, did not win because they had strong policies but used personal user data of unsuspecting citizens to manipulate the outcome of democratic processes. Our data was used in ways that we did not understand & did not consent to.
Facebook for instance, has about 2 billion accounts, each user with their own personality, how they react to things, their political views, what they like, their age, location, their friends, what we talk about etc. With this kind of data & a horde of data analysis tools, campaign teams acquired the data & built psychological profiles of all the voting population. The harvested data was used, to divide & conquer societies/electoral population. Fake news stories, agendas were pushed to an unsuspecting population. In this way, affecting the outcome of a democratic process.
This follows “Breitbart doctrine”, which states if you want to fundamentally change society, you first have to break it, so that when you do, you can then mold the pieces into your image of a new society. These same tactics were used on movements such as black lives matter & blue lives matter by actors allegedly funded by the Russian government.
“The methodology used by these companies, would be considered weapons grade communication tactics against the population.”
Brittany Kaiser Ex-top exec Cambridge Analytica
Since 2016, numerous investigations were kicked off in the UK & US. The UK parliament’s conclusion was their election laws were not fit for purpose. This means that elections were/are susceptible to manipulation using the same platforms that were created to connect us. They can now be weaponized against us. It’s a whole new world.
Knowing this now, fundamentally changes how you view Big tech companies. From the little guy in a hoodie that wants to connect the world to digital gangsters. It is not possible to go completely offline but we need to start asking fundamental questions on how big tech handles our personal user data moving forward. This is not about one company, & there is no denying that Big data as an industry will continue to grow, but we desperately need laws & policies in place to regulate the industry, so our own data will not be used against us.
“This is not a partisan issue…. this is about the integrity of our democracy, it’s about our national sovereignty & I would think that you would have an interest in that also”
Carole Cadwalladr , The Guardian
Next week we shall look at the possible solutions that have been suggested to solve this issue.
Kwaheri & Chop chop, lollipop!
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Tech tip : Staying safe online