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Advertising is just the surface layer—the excuse. Digital ads rely on collecting as much personal data as possible, but that data is the real prize. This create
by normalaccess 2y ago
Advertising is just the surface layer—the excuse. Digital ads rely on collecting as much personal data as possible, but that data is the real prize. This creates a natural partnership with intelligence agencies: they may not legally collect the data themselves, but they can certainly buy access.
This isn’t new. Facebook, for example, received early funding from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, and its origins trace back to DARPA’s canceled LifeLog project—a system designed to track and catalog people’s entire lives. Big Tech and government surveillance have been intertwined from the start.
That’s why these companies never face real consequences. They’ve become quasi-government entities, harvesting data on billions under the guise of commerce.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- zeroq 2y agoYears ago a friend working in security told me that every telco operator in Elbonia has to have a special room in their HQ that's available 24/7 to some goverment officials. Men in black come and go as they please, and while what is actually happening in that room remains a mystery, they can tap straight to the system from within with no restrictions or traceability. Growing up in soviet bloc I took that story at face value. After all democracy was still a new thing, and people haven't invented privacy concerns yet. Since then I always thought that some sort of cooperation between companies like Facebook or Google and CIA/DOD was an obvious thing to everyone.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- somenameforme 2y agoPRISM [1] is the best evidence of how short-lived most people's memories are. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook were the first 4 members. It makes it pretty funny when companies like Apple (who also joined more than a decade ago) speak about trying to defend customer's privacy against government intrusion. There's so much completely cynical corporate LARPing for PR. And if one wants to know why big tech from China isn't welcome, be it phones or social media, it's not because fear of them spying on Americans, but because of the infeasibility of integrating Chinese companies into our own domestic surveillance systems. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM
- weikju 2y agoNice story, but… > Years ago a friend working in security told me that every telco operator in Elbonia See info about the fictional country of Elbonia here, from the Dilbert comics: [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert
- theoreticalmal 2y agoElbonia? How much mud did the men in black have to wade through to get to the secret room?
- LargoLasskhyfv 2y agoMagagagia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A Allallarmia https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichere_Inter-Netzwerk_Architektur https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichere_Inter-Netzwerk_Archite... (Really süperspeciälly VPN-hardware used to securely suck data out of ISPs with extradeutsche Gründlichkeit, mandatory to be installed by law, just in case, for some random chase.) Edit: Thinking of it this is bubbling up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_Complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_Complex , where Magagagia built some little base just 'a stones throw' away from Allallarmias former monopol government Telcos early internet exchange and HQ . ( https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernmeldetechnisches_Zentralamt https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernmeldetechnisches_Zentralam... ) What are the odds?
- webspinner 2y agoIt's been happening since the invention of the internet. Wait, probably because that's where it came from. OK OK not the web itself, but first there was ARPANET.