Privacy
By Kirk MacKenzie
May 10, 2011
Apple Confesses
Only 2 days after Steve Jobs denied it, Apple Computer now admits it records your location data and transfers it not just to your computer during a sync, but to the company itself. And it has no plans to change this. Although Apple will stop storing the data in your iPhone for a shorter period than 1 year, that means nothing if it continues to store your information in it computers. (link to article)
Why The Fuss?
This is a reasonable question. Perhaps my concern is heightened because of a computer background and 20 years of research into our world. I see the big picture. And the big picture is Big Brother. Corporations and government are working together to profile and track every person on Earth in real-time. And that is no joke.
Consider The Following
o Apple and Google track our locations real-time.
o Google tracks everything we do on the Internet.
o Facebook and other social networks track what we say and who we say it to.
o Government rummages through our garbage, records & analyzes our phone conservations, and even eavesdrops on our conversations.
o Police use technologies to scan our computers and now our smart phones.
o Digital TV transmits our viewing information back to the providers.
o Banks know what we buy (down to individual items), where we buy, and when we buy.
o Amazon keeps a history of the books we buy. The Patriot Act allows government access to these records.
o And this is only a partial list.
Big Brother
The technology behind all of these “services” is called “data mining.” Increasingly faster and more intelligent computers are being assigned the task of profiling and tracking you, your spouse, your children, and everyone else – in real-time. When the information from all of these sources is tied to your social security number and aggregated, the result is frightening. Don’t think that is happening? Think again. Believe this is all benign, and being used to just improve the targeting of advertising? I have some land in Florida to sell you.
Location Data
With nothing more than location data, it is possible to determine:
o Where we live.
o Where our family & friends live.
o Where we work.
o Where we shop.
o Where we go to dine.
o Where we go to watch movies.
o Where we go to church.
o Where we go for medical care.
o Where we children go to school and to play.
Synthesis
By combining our location data with that of others, it is possible to determine:
o Who lives in our homes.
o Who our family & friends are.
o Who a company’s employees and customers are.
o Who attends church, which church, and who the members of a church are.
o Who attends your children’s schools.
o Who attends your Tea Party, 912, C4L, political, and other meetings.
o Who provides your medical care.
o Who your accountants, lawyers, and tax advisers are.
Timestamps
By combing that information with a timestamp, it is possible to
o When no one is at home.
o Determine your schedule and your children’s schedules.
o Predict where you and your children will be.
o Know when and where various groups meet.
Profiling
By combing this with Google, FaceBook, and other profiling data, it is possible to:
o Profile us based on our thoughts, beliefs, politics, values, who we associate with, and so on.
o Model & predict our individual behaviors.
o Model & predict, and thus control, societal behavior.
o Blackball people in hiring, loan applications, credit scores, and the like.
Privacy Matters
Privacy matters. It is time to take a stand. Until these companies see an impact to their bottom lines, it will only get worse.
For more from Kirk MacKenzie, see www.SilentNoMorePublications.com
