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6 A Planetary-Scale Threat
– “to save the world”,
– “for security reasons”,
– “knowledge is power”, and
– “data is the new oil”.
In today’s “surveillance capitalism”,
2 besides secret services private companies
spy on us as well. We are being “profiled”, which means that highly detailed files
are produced about us. These (pro)files can contain a lot more data than one would
think:
– income data
– consumption data
– mobility patterns
– social contacts
– keywords appearing in emails
– search patterns
– reading habits
– viewing patterns
– music taste
– activities at home
– browsing behavior
– voice recordings
– photo and video contents
– biometrical data
– health data
– and more.
Of course, there is also a lot of other data that can be inferred:
– sexual orientation
– religion
– interests
– opinions
– personality
– strengths
– weaknesses
– likely voting behavior
– and more.
6.2 Surveillance Capitalism
You may, of course, wonder why one would record all this data? As I said before,
money and power are two of the motivations. Surveillance capitalism basically lives
2 Zuboff [1].