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The endgame of having total access to peoples' private behavior to manipulate them for profit is not a CIA game. To my knowledge it's not a pattern to do a shor
by riazrizvi 4y ago
The endgame of having total access to peoples' private behavior to manipulate them for profit is not a CIA game. To my knowledge it's not a pattern to do a short stint in intel and then go into business to exploit the information you gathered. No this is different. This is the essence of the threat to democracy and to widespread economic opportunity, since it creates and insurmountable advantage for people with this information. Historically, power sharing doesn't survive when the balance of power is lost between narrow interests and the broader population. That balance is a rarity which is why so many civilizations throughout history settled into broadly 'disincensitivized' populations. If the US loses it, it would lose what makes it special.
- specialist 4y agoJill Lepore's book "If Then" covers the "why" justifying the early demographic modeling (friends of friends, social networks). Military types wanted to predict revolutions. Political types wanted to target voters. Marketing types wanted consumers. https://www.amazon.com/If-Then-Simulmatics-Corporation-Invented/dp/1631496107 https://www.amazon.com/If-Then-Simulmatics-Corporation-Inven...
- riazrizvi 4y agoI don't see a problem with behavioral analytics. Anyone can do it, it's not going to break us. What will is one or two organizations having exclusive access to our behavior and using that info to create a competitive advantage. So I think Apple is moving in that direction more than anyone else. Meta provides demographic info to any advertisers who sign up to use its service and so is not a threat to economic opportunity at all IMO.