stewofkc

I was happy to see "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" and "Permanent Record" on your list. More people are becoming aware of the threats that surveillance has on our society thanks to books like these and even something like The Social Dilemma on Netflix.

I think unfortunately we're going to see a lot of companies adopt a sort of "privacy washing" (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gGb_vKbJLU) before we see much real change in their privacy practices.

I'll definitely add a few of these to my books to read for 2021.

DDG is alright. I actually use Search Encrypt.

Facebook is the perfect company to take all the heat. Mainly because Mark Zuckerberg is such an icon.

https://hackernoon.com/why-facebook-is-the-perfect-represent...

I use StartPage sometimes...just depends on how I'm feeling at the time.

The point about Mark Zuckerberg is spot on. People like to love him, but half of the internet has now decided they like to hate him.

I've always been skeptical of DuckDuckGo. Some people say it's linked to Google...I'm don't buy that. However, search engines in general are tough to truly know how they work.

Apple gets it. They really have no choice if they're dealing with kids though. I don't know how Google manages to control the majority of the education market for tablets (60%)...because of the immense tracking that they do.

Exactly! Facebook is acting as the scapegoat right now, even though the breaches into its users privacy can be applied to most big tech companies right now.

It's scary what companies, governments, etc. can do with data.

The internet has been a "wild west" for its entire existence. While this allowed it to grow and improve freely, it also brought about bigger issues. Government intervention could work, but the government getting involved in tech usually sucks.

It all comes down to profits. The media companies need the data. And I would argue that most people aren't sharing information directly with publishers on the internet, it all goes through Facebook and Google (the companies they are criticizing).

Works for me. But I'm using an iPhone.

The price gouging is a whole other issue...which is a by-product of the availability of this data.

If Facebook/Google are really gathering our data to enhance advertising, it isn't helping the end user. Although it could, if they shifted their focus from ad revenue to user experience (not gonna happen).

This information is certainly very important for advertisers. However, if you shop on websites with Google analytics, etc. Google will have the exact same information, combined with the rest of the information it's able to collect.

Only focusing on Facebook's scandal shifts attention away from the real issue, which is tracking on the internet in general. Most people aren't aware of the extent to which they are sharing information.

It's not news that Facebook is gathering and storing TONS of information about its users (and even non-users). Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft are all guilty of the same thing.

I wouldn't say I've changed my career to become a writer. However, I've shifted directions and have began writing a ton more as part of my career.

I'm in marketing, and before was focused quite a bit on social media content which was just quick little snippets accompanied with a photo. Now I write mainly long form content for blogs.

I focus on digital privacy and security at: https://choosetoencrypt.com/

If you like writing, you can incorporate it into many careers, without having to quit your job and be a starving artist.

That story in GizModo is cool...kinda what I expected. IoT has a long way to go.

I agree. However, people feel comfortable because they are online with billions of other people. They feel less threatened because their information is hidden within the info of the other billion people using the internet.

I thought this was super cool.

https://blog.hackster.io/keep-an-eye-on-things-with-a-wirele...