Doubt no more – the “Internet” knows who you are

For the most part, everyone that I speak with has come to accept the possibility that the Internet knows much more about them than they might think. Their acceptance (which ranges from grudging to incredibly blasé) of a faceless, amorphous entity known as “the Internet” being more familiar with them than their neighbors is made acceptable exactly because the Internet has achieved that same omniscient and omnipresent position as “the Government” or “the CIA” or, dare we say, God him/her/itself. These entities are out there, both comforting and ominous, but not personal, not sitting right next to you.

Perhaps we’ve been doing this wrong.

People aren’t scared, upset or even bothered anymore when we tell them their privacy has been invaded by the “Internet”. In truth, that’s a kindness, because the specifics are much more disturbing. A security researcher just uncovered a veritable treasure trove of personal information on nearly 340 million Americans, i.e., all of us. This information was being hosted in an unsecured database by marketing firm Exactis, and it holds close to 2 terabytes of data. And unfortunately for all of us, it’s much worse than credit cards and social security numbers. Instead, it’s much more personal, such as home addresses and phone numbers, number of children in the family, interests, hobbies, habits, shopping preferences, up to 400 variables on each person in their database, including whether they are a smoker, how many pets and what type, and yes, religious affiliation.

If you ever question how online advertising could be so specific, wonder no more. The marketing firms know where their bread is buttered, and firms like Cambridge Analytica and Exactis are sacrificing your privacy on the altar of data aggregation for the almighty dollar. How does one fight back? Make sure you understand where your local congress critter stands on matters like privacy, encryption and regulatory enforcement on failures like the massive Equifax breach for which exactly zero justice or compensation was delivered.

Get out and vote.