Reading Permanent record, autobiography of Edward Snowden.There is an intresting bit when he talks about Intelligence agencies & tech industries.The very belief that they are entitled to their unilateral decision making based on data,makes them apolitical as data itself is just information.The idea of harmless surveilance or surveilance for greater good?
Makes me feel vulnerable when one pours out into the digital world,someone is just calling it data & putting a label on you & uses it in a way profitable to them.Imagine tweeting feeling sad tonight after a break up & netflix suggests me Always be my may be😐 and Google suggests best shops that sell cookie dough near by.They know me too well.🙊
Its like they put a label on my feeling & advertise it."swapy is sad & would probably eat cookie dough today & watch netflix😣."
The otherside to this is the assumption that since I posted it, I gave them permission to use this data.But do most people even read the license agreement or data usage policies?People just click accept.I didnt agree to sell my sadness 😑.These tech companies are merging all the time.Google has taken over so many that google knows more about me than I do.Its like If I die, the google me would go on living, inactive till they archive me.creepy digital existance?
This book is a gem.Especially for people from a country like India where the Data protection laws are virtually non existant.
@design_RG Thanks Rob :) its a good book, my post doesn't do it justice.
@me Sad Truth :( , Times that we live in are scary.
@Simplyswapy I remember once I was in India, buying a sim card. I had to fill a form asking me a lot of stuff, like number from someone else as reference etc., so I just asked to guy "man, what's all this for? What do people do with the data?"
He must have thought I wanted to pull his leg, and got really angry with me and kick me out of the place.
I was so confused and frustrated... but I guess that data protection is not a really felt issue in India
Thanks for the post, and welcome!
@arteteco I am so sorry about your experience in India,what you say is true.Majority of Indians are unaware of the violations of data privacy & the importance of it.India is probably the only country with so much biometric data of most of its citizens & having no/few laws to protect it.(Adhar card).
Glad you liked the post, Thank you for the warm welcome :)
@Simplyswapy Have to read the book soon. 
My internal voice is of Rami Malek's from #MrRobot while reading this post. Great show :)
@Karthikdeva Thank you for your kind words :) , The book is a really good👍
> I didnt agree to sell my sadness
And then there are companies like #facebook that even have a #shadowprofile about you. You are their product, if you want it or not, no opt-in, opt-out. No choice.
@d599f84e
>you are their product,if you want it or not, no opt in ,opt out.
True, Very true.It bothers me greatly being called a product.Its like taking the humanity out of me & calling me a thing.But there is no way around it.Its everywhere.
@Simplyswapy I have constantly feared that an invasion of data would follow up with subtly suggesting us things to do online because they sit there capturing everything we post and say here! Due to this reason I wished for an anonymity. It's like even if I say no to the license agreement and decide to not stay up on anything, With browsing or randomly just watching something on youtube is enough for them to show ads suggesting get this and get that. I remember i searched something online from amazon and everywhere else I did go since then, Ads popped asking me to get the things I searched. Creeps me out even today! Nothing is in out control infact I guess. Great read! Relatable and Interesting!! 👍
@Tallymark90 Yes thats the sad truth.No longer are we invicible.Does that make it safer for everyone? I dont know.Does that make me feel safe?No, I feelt used in somecases because of targeted Advertisements.I share the creepy feeling too.
Do read the book its very intresting :)
@Simplyswapy I somewhat agree. I dislike how big companies, particularly social networks, can manipulate data and reinforce some behaviors in ways that may not be good for society (e.g., anything related to politics), but it is sometimes practical in terms of how easier it makes for searching results or curating things that I'm genuinely not interested in. Reading Snowden's book makes me more wary of the governments themselves than any private corp, as they can be more dangerous with the data they collect about us.
@Canas
I Agree too.Govts have more ulterior motives but they collect our data from these firms themselves like the PRISM program of NSA.So I am equally wary of pvt firms & the govt.The govt I hold responsible more than the pvt firms, because that is an elected establishment to serve the people.They should have more intergity & responsibility to its citizens than pvt firms,pvt firms exist for profit.
@Simplyswapy great post, thank you. Got to read the book.