Why you need to start caring more about Internet privacy

You need to start showing the middle finger to corporations — and the government

Julian V.

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I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” before. There are no freebies in life. Everything you get comes at a price, whether you know it or not.

All the free services we enjoy in our modern society; Youtube, Google, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. they’re not all that free. You’re not paying a dime to use these companies’ services, but they make sure to charge you in other ways. What exactly are they getting out of you? Data.

In the era of information data is a prime resource. Companies such as Facebook collect huge amounts of data about you. Companies like Google build ‘personas’ based on this data, which are extremely accurate facts about your online behaviors. The information is sold to advertising companies, who then use it to appeal to us as customers.

As cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier put it in an interview:

Surveillance is the business model of the internet. Everyone is under constant surveillance by many companies, ranging from social networks like Facebook to cellphone providers. This data is collected, compiled, analyzed, and used to try to sell us stuff. Personalized…

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