How safe are we when the phones in our pockets take note of wherever we go; whatever we do; whomever we meet; and which, when, and how we meet them. It seems that our behavior is now accurately monitored, surveilled, and predicted.
It all began with someone’s dream of a connected world; a space where everyone could share each other’s experiences and feel less alone.
It wasn’t long before this world became our matchmaker, instant fact-checker, personal entertainer, guardian of our memories, and even our therapist.
Our information is all collected in real-time and attached to our identity, giving any seller direct access to our emotional pulse; including all of our interactions, our credit card swipes, our web searches, our locations, and our likes on social media.
Armed with this knowledge, the sellers compete for our attention; feeding us a steady stream of content built for and seen only by us; what we like, what we fear, what gets our attention, what our boundaries are, and what it takes to cross them.
Quite scary isn’t it? Or is it not?