if you have a phone, computer, tablet, smart watch, or any other device, and further; apps, then data is being collected and exchanged via complex algorithms meant to speed up various processes. Algorithms are private property though, and so private entities stand to gain from algorithms. for example youtube's "suggested videos". It gets to know you and how to suggest things to keep you watching.
It can be argued that these algorithms can also be used to further political agendas, and propaganda, by suggesting proponents of a situation in favour or against one thing or another, such as how the U.S. president receives 90 percent negative coverage.
These systems are quickly becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives. As more devices connect to each other, new devices come onto the market, and life becomes more managed by the internet, and such devices and more data is required. These algorithms can not only collect data on you, and share it with big marketing firms, and other algorithms, but they can also recognize you, know your traits, habits, information, voice, social views, and can even make predictions about your future(hence being able to make suggestions).
This article is meant to shed light on a sceptical need for privacy, and being just as careful with digital life as your life away from the screen. Algorithms are starting to be more relevant and more integrated into our way of seeing the world. they are choosing what we see, and suggesting what to look for, and buy. They are collecting data about you every time you touch a device, and saving everything you ever enter in clouds all over the world.
There are margins in data just as in cash. Your data means everything. If a company or an algorithm which works for one can benefit from selling you an idea, it is just as valuable as the sale itself. The more they get to know your routines and habits the more they will be able to do it again and again with accuracy. It is fair to say, then that there is competition, and pressure to obtain data, and data is being bought and traded. Your on-line self is a commodity, and everyone wants it. who gets it? highest bidder, of course, and to contend you need to watch the bottom line.
Information is not good or bad by nature, but if there are stakes in who has the most, who produces the most, and who gains the most from it, then it stands to reason that what information, when, where, and how, has to serve the best interest of the private entity who owns the algorithm collecting it. Don't be fooled though, just like in any business, the best interest is self preservation, so just be careful.
Algorithms are allowed to judge and evaluate people in the criminal system of America. Every day, thousands of verdicts are being rendered by algorithms that took the place of backlogged book keeping. is it benign?
https://www.wired.com/2017/04/courts-using-ai-sentence-criminals-must-stop-now/
In closing I would just like to express that the online world has evolved into a very massive place, and for the most part we understand it, but there is a lot on the internet of things that we should approach with caution. If used properly, these technologies can advance the world into a new age, and if not can subvert everything we strive for.
How are your privacy settings right now?
