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martyb writes:

Invisible Manipulation: 10 Ways our Data is Being Used Against Us:

The era where we were in control of the data on our own computers has been replaced with devices containing sensors we cannot control, storing data we cannot access, in operating systems we cannot monitor, in environments where our rights are rendered meaningless. Soon the default will shift from us interacting directly with our devices to interacting with devices we have no control over and no knowledge that we are generating data. Below we outline 10 ways in which this exploitation and manipulation is already happening.

As just one example from the short article:

8. Invisible Discrimination and Poverty

Online, and increasingly offline, companies gather data about us that determine what advertisements we see; this, in turn, affects the opportunities in our lives. The ads we see online, whether we are invited for a job interview, or whether we qualify for benefits is decided by opaque systems that rely on highly granular data. More often than not, such exploitation of data facilitates and exacerbates already existing inequalities in societies — without us knowing that it occurs. As a result, data exploitation disproportionately affects the poorest and most vulnerable in society.

That reminds me of the old saying: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Here's another old saying:

"If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." Cardinal Richelieu.

How much data would suffice to accomplish this, today?

Original Submission