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But, in spite of this, tech in Trump’s America has a problem. I’m not speaking of the sexism or racism women and minorities in Silicon Valley face on a daily basis, nor am I speaking of the broken tech culture that treats employees as more than just mere drones. I am talking, instead, about the complete subversion of your privacy rights by government and corporate interests intent on controlling and manipulating today’s social agendas.

Because of the work, I do and because of who I am, you’ll forgive me if I am somewhat vague on the specifics of my workplace. My, location, job, and prominence in my community make me easily identifiable and, I fear, potentially subject to reprisal if my identity were to come out. But I think it’s safe to say that you’ve heard of my employer and, in all probability, you likely use a product I've worked on.

Let’s start with an example almost anyone can relate to. Ever taken any tests or quizzes on Facebook? As harmless as they appear, these questionnaires take data from your questions while also compiling information from your profile and your friend’s profiles. While this would be disturbing on its own, there is evidence from the recent Cambridge Analytical scandal that all of that juicy data collected was compiled into a highly intimate psychographic profile of you.

What are these psychographic profiles useful for? Well, according to Cambridge Analytical whistleblower Christopher Wylie these profiles were being used to manipulate political elections around the world. [1] One prominent client was none other than Donald Trump who, during the run-up to the 2016 election, used Cambridge’s psychographic profiles to plan his campaign.

Facebook is vying for more than just your personal information however- it also wants your financial information. According to Fortune and the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is making deals with major banks to give critical information relating to where and for what you shop. This is all in exchange for banks being given access to Facebook messenger so that they may solicit directly to Facebook users. [2]

This is problematic when you think of the type of information your bank and Facebook have about you- ultimately between the two, there is almost no sensitive information that they don’t have in some form or another. With personal financial information added to Facebook’s databases, Facebook will have virtual profiles that are essentially digital clones of us. Trusting Facebook with this collection of vital information would mean accepting that our identities are vulnerable to theft internally and a valuable target to hackers externally- a major issue considering the continued increase in cybersecurity breaches.

Facebook has long touted the strength of its two-way encryption, which ensures that messages are protected on both the sender and recipient ’s end. However, it looks like that may soon be coming to an end. In a previously unreported California lawsuit currently under seal, insiders have revealed that the U.S. government is attempting to force Facebook into providing a backdoor into its Messenger application so that it would be able to wiretap messages sent through the popular chat platform. [3]

The government frames wiretapping Messenger is vital to national security as part of an ongoing investigation into the criminal gang MS-13. Unfortunately, history has shown time and time again that such invasive measures almost never go unchecked, and this ruling would provide the U.S. Government with unfettered access to your messages as well- the Government may even up collecting it all in an NSA-style metadata sweep if they feel it’s necessary.

Facebook ’s issues don’t end with the social media giant itself, and some of its subsidiary companies have been victims of privacy concerns as well. The most notable, however, is undoubtedly the underreported (and perhaps partially covered up) news that Instagram has been hacked.

In the past two years, hundreds of Instagram users have reported their accounts being compromised by outside sources who hijacked the users’ photos for personal gain. [4] Thousands more have reported attempted hacking. Instagram is one of Facebook’s biggest money-makers, representing over $100 billion in value and representing a large portion of Facebook’s annual 13% growth. And yet, like Facebook itself, the site has failed to provide forward-thinking privacy measures to protect user privacy. While you can take steps to protect yourself, such as enabling two-factor authentication, Instagram doesn’t seem to be taking steps to stop you from being the next. The implications for the Instagram hack are massive, particularly when viewed within the context of increasingly sophisticated facial recognition software. But even more alarming is the government’s access to competing for photo social media platform Snapchat’ s contents.

Snapchat was recently fined and investigated by the FTC for failing to delete photos off of its server, even after users had set the photos to expire. While this is troubling in its own right, what is truly striking is that the FTC didn ’t make a Snapchat stop- it just made sure that the government would have access to the photos too. [5] Under to the FTC’s 2014 consent decree with Snapchat, the government now has access to all of your photos sent through the service until the year 2034 even if you’ve set your “snaps” to expire. [6] While this effectively circumvents the non-permanence of photos that made Snapchat so successful in the first place, the government’s actions have nonetheless gone unnoticed as it continues to access your information.

While I ’ve been harping quite a bit on Facebook, Zuckerberg is far from being the worst offender. No, perhaps the most creeping, cancerous growth to our personal liberty and autonomy is none other than the well-regarded internet search giant Google and its parent company Alphabet. Google’s tech-supremacy is ubiquitous, and the conglomerate has seeped into every aspect of our lives. Worryingly, Google seems to be tightening its vice grip over internet control by retaining your personal information for its own use.

Simply because you’ve deleted your browsing history doesn’t mean Google employees aren’t regularly accessing that history themselves. Information such as what websites you search, how you search, links you click and videos you watch, even deleted search terms that you never searched for, are cataloged and accessed for monetization purposes. [7]

The fact your searches are immortalized maybe not as harmless as you think, primarily because this information is not anonymized. Rather, your history can be uniquely attributed to you. While you are utilizing any of Google’s services, even merely the Chrome browser, Google tracks your geographic location and IP address, what server you’re utilizing, and collects opaque “personal identifiers” from third-party affiliates.

The biggest mistake you can possibly make is believing that Google and other tech giants stop collecting data when you tell them to. Turning off phone tracking in your settings for your Google apps may put your mind at ease, but in reality, location data is still being collected. [8] Every time you utilize Maps or search features, you are leaving digital footprints that Google stores. Prior to an investigation into this issue, Google unequivocally told users that turning off their location history feature would render them immune to the tech giant’s prying eyes. Truth is stranger than fiction, however, and there seems to be no way for a user of Google’s service to prevent data collection and maintain their anonymity.

Just what is this information used for? Ostensibly, Google collects your data for the third party targeted advertisement purposes. And many individuals, however right or wrong, would be fine with an outside force having mere location data- after all, there’s no problem if you have nothing to hide, right?

And not only is Google tracking your location, but also everything you say when you’re around a Google-backed microphone. Journalists from Vice report that not only does your phone generally record all audio it receives, such as what you’re saying when you speak, but it also uses that information to display targeted ads. [9] While this may seem innocuous enough at first blush, it sets a dangerous precedent. In effect, your phones are listening to every word you say and then transmitting it to an outside third-party without your consent or knowledge. Location data is one thing, but having a company retain a complete repository of everything you say around microphones is an entirely different beast.

The government and these companies are out to get your information by any means necessary. For what purpose it’s hard to say- but a ll this adds up to a threat you can’t choose to ignore. To stay up-to-date on privacy news and get resources on how to protect yourself, make sure to subscribe by sending us an email with Privacy Antidote in the subject line to:





























