The Big G and Canada (and RIM... and, well, it's a long article)

[Bernard Wright]

It's long but if you have some time to spare it's an interesting read. Calling a couple of Canadians in here in case they'd be keen. @Bob Hawkes @MapleDots

I'd post an excerpt but it's a very long piece.

https://thewalrus.ca/are-you-afraid-of-google-blackberry-cofounder-jim-balsillie-says-you-should-be/

 

[MapleDots]

It's long but if you have some time to spare it's an interesting read. Calling a couple of Canadians in here in case they'd be keen. @Bob Hawkes @MapleDots

I'd post an excerpt but it's a very long piece.

https://thewalrus.ca/are-you-afraid-of-google-blackberry-cofounder-jim-balsillie-says-you-should-be/

The thing about google is you can go into your account and delete as little or as much as you want to. The article does a bit of fear mongering and caters to the readers who do not understand the concept of what google is and does.

I can go into my console and delete a particular voice search I did on my google home or I can delete the history of my trip to the Bahamas from last year. I could also go in and delete my entire profile and history.

So instead of scaring the public it would have been better if the article educated the public in how to go in and delete the information one did not want to keep on the google servers.

I regularly review all my google history files and have even taught my kids how to remove things they do not wish to share.

The thing about technology is that it can be a great, your best friend or you can run scared. You can also chose not use it and lose a whole lot of convenience.

Education is the key....

 

[HotKey]

This is carpe diem time for data governance. “We’re at a tipping point.”

Except, it's too late guys. The tipping point happened when we continued to use free services like YouTube and accepting the fact that our video were being preceded by advertising. When we started accepting the fact that we have to click "its ok" to accept cookies when we visit a website. When we started accepting alerts on our phones for special deals. When we started installing software on our computers, and rather than options for features, we accepted tailored advertising. We we started becoming lazy pigs, and taking the "smart" from ourselves and implanting it into our homes.

You weren't kidding- that is one loong article. But, what a read! Thanks for sharing it. Wish I could say it was an eye-opener, but it's not. We should have all seen this coming, long ago. We have essentially sold ourselves to the whim of Big Data and their employers, Big Advertisers.

I used to have a Faceplant account, which I had logged into every few months just for appearances sake. After the Cambridge Anal Extraction scandal, that was the last straw for me.

This is why, it's my belief, it is more important than ever to secure your own domain name and learn how to use it. Whether an end user or investor.

**

I took the liberty of extracting some points from the article, along with some of my own thoughts:

Balsillie warned, was developing faster than the ability of policy makers to reckon with its consequences. “We are cascading toward a surveillance state,” he said, conjuring a world divided into the watchers and the watched, a world where Big Tech piles up astronomical profits by distilling our everyday experiences into data to monetize—in some instances, doing so “without a moral conscience.”

Where Balsillie's agenda from the start was to protect our personal data, it's no wonder he had a fight, and lost, against the behemoths like Big G.

it would seem reckless not to be concerned that such power is accountable to shareholders rather than elected officials.

Reckless? Ya think?? Shareholders rule, all others drool. What has perplexed me for years, are we all, as shareholders, living with our head stuck in the sand? Does profit trump freedom? In many ways, money is a shackle.

Balsillie’s worry, however, is ultimately less about privacy than about control. “History,” he said to the MPs, “offers sobering lessons about societies that practise mass surveillance.”

His bible in business was the ancient Chinese text The Art of War by Sun Tzu...

Balsillie now wields this same predatory expertise in his war to rein in the tech industry and awaken Canadians to the dangers of concentrating too much power in the hands of a few companies that have become rich by knowing more about us than we do about ourselves.

Sidewalk Labs is "an Orwellian nightmare in the making".

Customized advertising preferences. Sidewalk Labs. What a joy it will be to live there, once completed. Just think, we may not even have to get out of bed to go to work, and will have our food and products chosen for us, drone delivered.

Sensors as tiny as a grain of salt have been developed to track our movements.

Facial-recognition technology has been employed in some Canadian malls to monitor the age and gender of shoppers.

camera-embedded bathroom mirrors

Wake up Canada. This is all smoke and mirrors. A distraction to this very critical statement from the article:

Over the last twenty years, the global economy has become less dependent on physical assets, such as factories and merchandise, and more dependent on intangible assets, such as patents, databases, copyrights, software, and algorithms

Doh. Take a look at our homes. At our cities. While we are busy worrying about Alexa playing our favorite songs, our foundations are crumbling. Can Alexa fix that??

 

[droned]

deleted sorry

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thank you for the heads up @Bernard Wright - it is a long article covering a lot of ground, with a huge amount of the Balsillie story woven in. I think that there is already huge concern from the Facebook situation about data being controlled by corporations. I also think Canadians are even more concerned about social media misinformation campaigns whether they are with respect to elections or vaccination. I think the time is ripe for some kind of pull back to control what data companies can hold, use and sell.

His message about Canada not going the route of further investing in tech branch plants and growing its own tech giants, would resonate well with many.

Interestingly the guy who was the whistle blower on Facebook and Cambridge Analytica grew up in the city where I now live.

Bob

 

[Ostrados]

I could also go in and delete my entire profile and history

Define what do you mean by "delete"
Is your profile enitrely deleted from G database or is it marked as deleted? big diffence.

I have no proof they keep your data after delete, but I also I have no proof they don't.

"Knowledge is power" in web industry this phrase translates to "data is power", those who harvest more data will always have the upper hand and will continue to dominate.

 

[FolioTeam]

Never put online what you are not ready to share with the world. Period.

The internet never forgets.

 

[MapleDots]

I have no proof they keep your data after delete, but I also I have no proof they don't.

My home town has one of the most important google headquarters in the world. That headquarters is 100% responsible for the design and engineering of apps like gmail. This app is 100% made in my hometown and I have inside knowledge where I can assure you at google delete means delete. They hang on to the data for an additional 30 days in case you change your mind and then it is gone forever and can never be restored.

Unlike facebook which said your data was deleted and years later it showed up on their new timeline feature. At which time they said they promised to delete it from their servers but not from their backups. That was such a sloppy privacy issue and they lost millions of users over it.

With google delete means delete.... don't believe me?

Go ahead and delete your gmail account, wait for 30 days and see if you can get it back.

 

[dande]

Summery please? I am tired of long articles today. Just finished writing one at BitcoinTalk