The Fourth Amendment secures our right to be secure against unreasonable searches, right?
Not anymore, Naomi Brockwell explained on her popular YouTube channel.
In my new video, she explained how tech companies spy on us and then sell our information to the government.
But some of us actually find that tech companies’ prying can be a good thing.
Neil Chilson of the Charles Koch Institute said, “It’s not only good for the companies; it’s good for the user because it makes for a much more seamless experience.”
Apps can recommend places to eat, stores to shop at, and much more.
These apps “make my life easier,” I told Ms. Brockwell. “Convenience matters.”
“Convenience absolutely matters,” Ms. Brockwell agreed, “but privacy is important. ... The U.S. government knows what color underwear you like to buy and what kinds of videos make you scroll a little bit slower.”
“So what?” I said.
She pointed out, “That data is forever. Stored in permanent records associated with your identity in databases in Utah.
“You have no control over what regime might come to power tomorrow, over which hacker might get access to that data. You have no control over what societal norms might change in the next 10 years and that data suddenly becomes incriminating. You’re basically making a bet that you and the people with the guns [the government] will always stay on good terms.
“What if they made cryptocurrency illegal? Made guns illegal? Everyone who partakes in that suddenly becomes a criminal. Look at what happened in China. Hong Kong used to be a bastion of freedom.”
When China crushed that freedom, they used people’s phones to track and punish protesters.
“Think about all the apps on your phone you’ve given permission to access your camera, location permission, microphone permission,” Ms. Brockwell said.
I replied, “So they work better.”
“You are happy with these obscure apps, where you know nothing about the developers, to be able to look through your private photos?” she asked, incredulously.
I told her, “I don’t think they want to look at my private photos.”
She replied, “That’s a presumption.”
I pushed back: “If they know where I am, they can recommend a ‘car repair shop near me’ or ‘restaurant near me.’ I like that.”
Ms. Brockwell replied, “I think it’s creepy, personally, but it goes further than that. These companies have a whole business model of selling that data. You have no idea where it ends up. ... It could be ending up in the hands of hackers on the dark web who want to target you with phishing scams, in the hands of political regimes who want to target you with specific content to get you to think in a certain way. ... And you’re probably oblivious that any of this stuff is going on.”
I’m oblivious unless I notice how specifically they market to me. I get creeped out when I’m talking about something and suddenly see an ad promoting something that addresses exactly what I was talking about. I think: “Oh, my God, were they just listening to me? How did they know to send me this?’”
Ms. Brockwell said: “They know. Did you give them permission to access your microphone?”
“Probably,” I said.
She said, “They might be listening to you.”
More likely, they just know because they know where I’ve been, what I do, and who my friends are.
Ms. Brockwell then looked at my phone and told me to delete most of my apps.
She said: “I know you like them, but you are taking your phone around with you everywhere you go. ... The government is purchasing all this data about us, creating records about all of us. That’s a really scary thing.”
