1984 Tried To Warn You
Thank you. This is a YouTube video from the future. It's 2030. Privacy is dead, and we're happier than ever. Security cameras, dash cams, monitors, laptops, smartphones, even glasses—there are telescreens, sorry, cameras everywhere and we love them. We can video chat with our friends, shove our deepest, darkest secrets on social media, or look into our neighbor's backyard to make sure they're not looking into ours.
The camera must always be on to unlock your smartphone with facial recognition software. It frequently scans your face and matches it with the visual data you gave when you first used the phone. This always-on camera is terrific for unlocking your phone swiftly, accessing your bank account, or giving a hypothetical totalitarian government a necessary check-in on your life. But it's okay because no one is watching you. Now, if anything, these features enable more privacy. We should call your smartphone a privacy enabler.
Your phone also comes equipped with a microphone for the phone calls and recording video, and for listening to your conversations, so the AI assistant will know when it's being called and to let the ad companies hear what you truly want. Have you ever noticed that sometimes ads pop up in your social media feed about stuff that you've never searched for before but only spoken about with friends? Isn't that great? You get served what you want without actually having to search for it.
Are these apps spying on you? Well, we definitely can't say that they are, but hypothetically, it would be great because those in power looking after us could listen in on our conversations and catch criminals before they can commit a crime. I know I'd feel safer; wouldn't you? That's why it'll be called the safety enabler feature. When you go on TikTok, the For You page serves you content for the exact situation you're going through. Just been broken up with? Here's a video to comfort you. Bored out of your mind? Here's a video to excite you. Have an unfounded belief that you don't want to let go of? Here's some misinformation to ground you.
The best thing about this is that data doesn't stay on the platform. It can be bought by almost any third party. Sure, it might be anonymous, but everyone can access open-source tools to build a more complete picture of who you are. And when it's not bought, your information can easily be stolen in data breaches. According to a report from the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 68% more breaches in 2021 than in 2020, and that number is only going up.
There's only one way to stop this—you need to email every single data broker and request that they delete the information they have about you. Then you have to reply to all of their objections and fight desperately for your own privacy. As you can imagine, this could take years. But using the sponsor of today's episode, Incogney, you can guarantee your privacy the easy way. All you have to do is create an account and grant them the right to work for you, and that's it.
Incognito will reach out to the data brokers on your behalf to request all your personal data be deleted and deal with any objections from the data brokers. To get started, sign up using the link in the description. The first 100 people to use code APERTURE with the link below get 60% off Incogney. It's completely risk-free for 30 days, so I encourage every one of you to at least give it a try. If you're not happy, you get a full refund anyway. But I can assure you, when you see just how many data brokers have your information, you'll definitely want to keep your subscription.
Back to our story. A man who recently lost his daughter found a disturbing letter sent from a service he uses, Office Max. After his name, the following detail was printed on the front of the letter: "Daughter killed in car crash."
The note was printed on the letter by mistake, but it demonstrates how much data is out there on individuals. The company insisted that the description came from a third party, which was used to fill out a more complete understanding of the grieving father. And you might say that's very invasive, but is it? How else is the algorithm supposed to...