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The Tech That's Reimagining the Public Sphere

• jruohonen 3y ago
  "Most people probably don’t want that to happen. Personally, if I could choose to opt out of having my image in an FRT database, I would do so emphatically. But opting out is tricky. Despite my well-reasoned fears about the surveillance state, I am basically your average dummy when it comes to sharing my life with tech firms. This summer, before my son was born, it suddenly felt very urgent to learn exactly what percentage Ashkenazi Jewish he would be, so I gave my DNA to 23andMe, along with my real name and address (I myself am 99.9 percent Ashkenazi, it turned out). This is just one example of how I browse the internet like a sheep to the slaughter. A hundred times a day, I unlock my iPhone with my face. My image and name are associated with my X (formerly Twitter), Uber, Lyft, and Venmo accounts. Google stores my personal and professional correspondence. If we are hurtling toward a future in which a robot dog can accost me on the street and instantly connect my face to my family tree, credit score, and online friends, consider me horrified, but I can’t exactly claim to be shocked: I’ve already provided the raw material for this nightmare scenario in exchange for my precious consumer conveniences." You're right: it is people like you.