Snippets about: Privacy
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"How Could Google And Facebook Know About My Affair???"
Imagine this scenario: a married woman starts an affair with a coworker. She is careful not to leave any obvious traces, but the signs are there if you know how to look:
- Location tracking on her phone shows frequent visits to hotels near the office
- Her search history includes "how to hide an affair" and "signs your partner is cheating"
- Her social media posts depict a happy marriage, but facial recognition AI detects micro-expressions of doubt and unease
Thanks to the power of big data and machine learning, companies like Google and Facebook can connect the dots to infer even our most intimate secrets - often without us realizing it.
This example illustrates a stark reality: in the digital age, privacy is becoming a relic of the past. No matter how carefully we curate our online image, the truth leaks out in a thousand data points we scatter in our wake.
Section: 3, Chapter: 8
Book: Homo Deus
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Establish a Private Life and Safeguard Your Privacy
Lesson 14: Establish a private life: Maintain a sphere of privacy and personal autonomy separate from state control.
Totalitarianism seeks to obliterate the boundary between public and private life, so establishing a sphere of personal privacy is an act of resistance. This isn't about having something to hide; it's about maintaining your autonomy and individuality in the face of intrusive state power. Snyder advises some practical steps:
- Scrub your computer of malware frequently
- Remember email leaves a permanent record
- Use the Internet mindfully and consider spending less time online
- Have sensitive conversations in person
- Don't give authorities an excuse to attack you; resolve any outstanding warrants or fines
Preserving privacy can be as high-stakes as protecting activists from surveillance and as mundane as keeping your personal data secure. Either way, it's an essential guardrail against tyranny.
Section: 1, Chapter: 14
Book: On Tyranny
Author: Timothy Snyder
