How media/digital companies constantly surveillances you by tracking and collecting your data without your knowledge.
I was always fascinated by George Orwell’s “1984,” a book that details a dystopic world corrupted by totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimes within societies. It identified how an idea, situation, or societal condition can be destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. Based on Stalinist Russia, I examined the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated (*cough*fox news* cough*). Therefore, as a Journalism major, I desire to spot the propaganda, distorted facts/misinformation, and overall BS presented to us by government organizations and the news media.
However, I forgot to acknowledge that it is not only a government or new channel that seems to be controlling our lives. That know what we like or despise. What we regularly do in days. It is something so common to us: When we pick up our phones to check out our social media pages, when we order something from online, or when we searched for interesting topics/subject matters on the web.
What is it? Well, it is the media companies.
It is Google, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and other corporations that gather all of our date to serve our needs! What we want. What we need. What we think. Everything a human being does for his or her self-interest, they know. And the most disturbing thing about this is how most of us are unaware of this fact.
Heavily investing in its ability to collect, store, and analyze data, Facebook does not stop there. … Tracking cookies: Facebook tracks its users across the web by using tracking cookies. If a user is logged into Facebook and simultaneously browses other websites, Facebook can track the sites they are visiting.
One way Amazon stalks you is by virtual assistants such as the Echo and Echo Show, which includes a camera as well as a speaker. Customers don’t realize that their audio recordings may be uploaded to Amazon’s servers. The company suggests that these voice files help make the Alexa experience better, enabling more accurate speech recognition by learning to process messages from a diverse group of customers.
The main data Google collects here is around your location, though it obviously tracks you through its apps as well—Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps—just as it does on the web.
Everything you do on Instagram is tracked. Almost every online service you use collects information about your actions. Every thumb scroll made through your feed provides it with information about your behavior. Instagram knows that you spent 20 minutes scrolling to the depths of your high-school crush’s profile at 2 am.
Snapchat tracks the mobile carrier providing your cell service. The app collects information from your phone’s sensors including your gyroscopes, and compasses. The app monitors your microphones and whether you have headphones connected. Snapchat also collects information about your location.
The lack of security on hugely popular social networking platforms is an invasion of privacy. The fact that a single company can know almost everything about is disturbing to the core, and violates our natural-borne freedoms.
The Blip Blog 