Who is the Bigger Brother?

Amazon, Google, Facebook, or Apple?

All of these companies collect TONS of data on their users. In fact, targeted advertising is one of Google’s primary revenue streams.

They are collecting:

• Where you are
• What you are searching for
• Which ads you tend to spend more time on
• What you click on, and how you move the mouse to get there
• What you are buying, and what you want to buy
• Who you are talking to, and who you want to talk to
• Where you are traveling to, and where you want to travel to
• And who knows what else..

From a marketing perspective, we are in a golden era.

1. Find out what demographic is buying your product? Easy peasy.
2. Pay for advertising that markets your product against the same demographic.
3. ???
4. Profit.

From a privacy perspective, we are on the brink of destruction.

If you have 48 minutes to spare, check out Micah Hoffman’s great presentation on Open Source Intelligence Gathering [OSINT]. Pretty crazy how much intel you can harvest with a little time and dedication!

Have you noticed that Facebook Messenger requests microphone access? Ah probably for their voice-to-text feature, right?

They’ve gotten a little too close for comfort.

I’m not really big on G-Shock watches, but I noticed my friend had one at dinner the other day.

While messaging some other friends on Facebook, I started to ask him about his watch and the history of the product line.

We quickly shift topics and head our separate ways once dinner is over.

Even without a Google search, guess what Amazon is advertising to me on their home page?

G-Shock watches. Coincidence? I think not.

They’re all big brothers, but when combined, they become giants.

Amazon’s got your shopping preferences.

Facebook knows who your friends are and what you talk about.

Apple [may] know how you use your phone and laptop.

And Google’s got pretty much everything else.

Giving up this data to each provider individually may not seem so extreme, but combining and correlating that data would probably reveal an accurate profile.

So what now?

By no means am I attempting to say that we should all stop using these services.

These companies have made their services so ingrained into our culture that it’s pretty tough to (not) use them.

I even tried to break up with Google, but I’m still using 6/13.

So what can you do? Be cognizant of what you are sharing, and regularly double check your privacy settings.

If you’re cool with sharing your entire profile, just be aware of that and make sure your settings are in line with that. Same goes if you wear a tin foil hat like me ;)

Concerns of privacy should never be met with ignorance.