Big Data

Chris Teppert
3 min readMay 2, 2021

I have long believed that privacy is nothing more that an illusion. A fantasy we tell ourselves to make us feel more comfortable. Is I have looked more into Big Data and how and why that data is collected I have only come to strengthen that belief.

As I had previously expected, and as Edward Snowden told the world. Governments have been watching everything we do. More than that major companies have been watching, analyzing and figuring out how to profit off our data. This isn’t a new concept, advertisers have been doing this for decades, its how they collecting this data that is eroding our privacy. With the internet of things, all this information is becoming much easier for corporations to map every facet of our lives. With smart toothbrushes, dental insurance companies can use that information to devise how much they are will to cover in dental treatment. With devices like Google home and Amazon Alexa, everything is being monitored recorded and sent back to these companies so they can use the data as they see fit. Your smart TV records every thing you turn on to advertise that much more content to you. Your cellphone records everything single thing you do. Regardless of if your walking down the street, or reading the news while doing your morning business.

Everything is being tracked and not always by ethical people. It was not long ago that soldiers at a base over sees was told they had to stop wearing fitness trackers, because not only was this information being uploaded to the companies that made the devices, but it was being broadcast to the internet and enemies where able to map an entire base, what parts where busiest and when and it all showed on heat maps. Amazon’s Alexa brought up controversy in another article some couple of years ago, when it is suspected to have recorded a domestic dispute that if memory serves, lead to a persons death. Amazon’s Ring has also started popping up in recent new because it is always recording and submitting information to Amazon about people who don’t even own it. They are simply walking down the street. With the Amazon Facial Recognition software that has also been a hot topic for them, that mean they can easily watch everyone and know (within margin of error) who they are. There are even sex toys these days that monitor use and orgasms, just so they can make a new one that may appeal more and give them more data.

It is frightening to think that we are giving companies this kind of control over our lives. Sure these companies are most likely posting all there data collection efforts in the terms and conditions, but no one stops to read those 50 page legal documents and companies know and exploit this. So for all these reasons and more “Big Data” has become big brother and most of us have gladly given up true privacy for an idea of privacy just to make life a little more comfortable. I mean is it really so hard to click a button on a remote, or do you have to pretend to be tony stark and tell your Alexa to turn on your TV?

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