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The Great Hack


"How we went about testing these questions and what we found may astound you. Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students who participated. In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress. Please read the story of what happened and what it tells us about the nature of human nature."


I found The Great Hack on Netfilx. Somebody mentioned it when we were talking about the need the world needs to have free internet to provide education opportunities for all, and one of the people that was on the conversation brought it up. I, being the Cassandra I am, ran to put it in my queue and watched it while having some popcorn. Halfway through, the popcorn was almost intact and I was glued to the TV. The more I watched, the more I was reminded of the Stanford Prison Experiment, because the expansion of social networking has proven to be a huge social experiment. An experiment that has showed us how flawed and gullible we are.

The thing is, for all the time I seem to spend online, I am notoriously recalcitrant about giving any of the tech giants too much info about myself. I cover my laptop camera and I refuse to give too much info to any new app or media giant. I take quizzes online but never email them to myself. I have a Twitter account that has seen very little movement because I use it as a news aggregator. Same with IG. I don't have LinkedIn. I don't have Facebook. I don't have Alexa at home. I have to authorize my phone each time I want to access one of my pics when I chat with my sister on an app, because they have geolocation activated while using the apps. I did give info to Google when I opened this account years ago but I try to limit the info I give to google, too. I use DuckDuckGo instead of other search engines. I watch porn on incognito windows. Yeah, it seems like a lot of work. But it makes me feel a little better. 

And after watching The Great Hack, and hearing how Cambridge Analytica used people's data to alter people's opinions and ultimately influence an election result, I feel better about being a slightly paranoid bitch. The Great Hack reminded me of the Stanford Prison experiment, where 'good people' (your family and 'friends') are put in an evil place through manipulation of their own data. You see, Cambridge Analytica used those little personality tests on Facebook (What Disney Villain are You?), for example, to extract data from your sweet aunt Doris, who uses Facebook to stay in touch with her nieces and nephews and it used that data to persuade her to change her view of the election process. Yep, that's why she went from the adorable lady who likes Better Homes and Gardens to the gorgon who had an Agolf Twiler sign in her yard and talks shit about that 'communist' Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Cambridge Analytica extracted about 5,000 data points of information from the millions of people on its database and used it to sway their perceptions of the world around them. Helped by Facebook. And the AI specifically did not go for people who had their minds already made, it went for the 'persuadables': those people it identified as being 'on the fence' or who showed they believed what they read online without questioning it. Cambridge Analytica chose the Republicans because they showed they believed everything they saw online without confirming it (Q-Anon, anyone?). And where did they get the data? From your sweet aunt, of course. She GAVE it to them. Data is the currency that Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google and any other tech giant deals with. Nothing is free. We are the product.

So next time somebody asks you if you turn off Alexa while you do the dirty and you say no, don't be surprised if a new brand of lube appears on your ads when you're surfing the web looking for restaurants. You gave Alexa the data. She's just using it. 

XOXO






Comments

  1. What is "incognito windows"?.... I don't have Alexa, so I guess I'm safer. I do use facebook. But even with some of the twisted gay groups I follow,....I only get cat ads.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahahaha oh, Jimmy
      It's when you right click on Chrome and it lets you choose an 'incognito window' for the new tab. It doesn't keep your history and you can type in the search box without auto-fill. Some cookies are rejected. Your employer and internet provider will still know where you go, though....
      I'm scared of Alexa. And do you have cats??

      XOXO

      Delete
  2. You should watch "The Brainwashing of My Dad" - on Prime. You'd be surprised how long ago the Republicans began this game, which gave rise to Glenn Beck, Rush, Alex Jones, and Faux News.

    While I'm not overly cautious, I don't have Alexa or any of those contraptions in the house, I don't play quizzes, etc....and I use incognito even for my blog. The data collectors have so much information on us it would make our heads spin should we know it. XOXO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did watch that!
      Terrifying transition of a person from normal to crazy just by watching Fox News. Some have criticized it for being to alarmist, but we all know Fox News is right wing propaganda. And the fact that Cheeto amplified its message and they fed on each other's lunacy is just proof that the documentarian was wright.
      Using incognito windows is a good idea, even when Comcast knows every little click I make. They all crave our data, Big...

      XOXO

      Delete
  3. I don't do facebook, either. I resist click bait, as I know what that is all about. The minute a site asks for info, I leave. A hard no. They already have a ton of info on me... fortunately, I have always been stealth enough to make stuff up. F 'em. But this does raise a very interesting possibility. If this method can be used for evil... can it also be used for good? As in educate. Is this how liberal America reaches out and undermine toxic orange ogre folks? What's good for the goose? Good for the gander. F 'em. F 'em all!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bravo!
      I don't let sites give me 'updates' and I have AdBlock. You'd be surprised how many it blocks even as I type this. And the thing is that 'good' things, like sex education and the such is heavily censored. Sex educators get demonetized and search engines ban them. But right wing organizations? They get promoted. Look at Facebook, that just refused to cancel Steve Bannon after he suggested doctor Fauci be decapitated. But people who commented on that? Banned.
      So, I agree. Fuck them all.

      XOXO

      Delete
  4. I'm on Instagram and blogger and that's it. Insta is the best and most convenient way for to me stay in contact with queens far and wide and for my pictures...and seems to be the preferred platform for drag queens now. Us drag queens historically despise FaceBook.

    And I don't have Alex either. 1- it's annoying as fuck and 2-Im convinced she too is evil.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree that IG is super good for artists. It's a visual medium, after all. Facebook owns it, though, so it's still evil. And they own your pics. It's in the small type. Facebook was problematic for many Drag performers because it refused to accept their stage names, I remember.
      Alexa is the devil. My putative sister in law has it and it creeps me out.

      XOXO

      Delete
  5. I do blogger, and Twitter and Facebook, but that's only to keep in contact with Left Coast family members. And, like uptonking, as soon as a site wants my info, I'm gone. And Alexa? No thanks/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Facebook knows all about your family, probably. And about all of your habits, just for clicking here and there. Not to mention your tagged photos and messages. It's really interesting how they do it.
      Blogger is also invasive, but can be kept for work purposes. The Google suite is cool for work. Ugh Alexa.

      XOXO

      Delete
  6. Incognito windows? Do tell..LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahahaha
      They help you keep your browsing under a little control. No history. No cookies. Very useful if you use your computer/laptop for work and don't want the auto-fill forms give someone a list of your fave sites/viewing history the second you start typing in the search box. Chrome has it. So does Firefox. Safari can be tweaked, too.
      Your employer will still know where you go, though. LOL and do does your internet provider. I wonder what they think about my habits. They probably know my keywords in Pornhub by now... LMAOOO

      XOXO

      Delete
  7. I reject Facebook, I only have Instagram, twitter, but without my personal photos. So I feel more than protected.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Facebook is the devil. They own instagram and all the material there, too. Apparently they have been selling the pics to create facial recognition algorithms, if you can believe that. Not having personal photos there is an advantage, though.

      XOXO

      Delete
    2. be sure I have never published a pic of mine anywhere, and I'm not going to do!!!

      Delete
  8. I'm on some stuff (how's that for keeping it confidential). I don't friend a lot of people on the stuff I'm on. I'm rather cautions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha
      You don't have to be that coy with us, dear. But not friending many people is good. Social networking went from a tool to stay in touch with people to a complete clusterfuck.

      XOXO

      Delete
  9. Like you I don’t do Facebook, and I do Twitter for news and porn though it seems my timeline is always a day behind. I don’t move that fast or I don’t have a lot of time to spend on it. Oh, and someone convinced me to open a blogger account so I’ve read some awesome posts there too.

    XOXO 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And dogs. You have to follow dogs on Twitter. Who can’t use a bit of fluffy sunshine in their feed?

      Delete
    2. Twitter replaced my NewsFeed when google got rid of it. And maybe you're seeing tweets by relevance and not as they happen. You have to change the algorithm so it gives you latest tweets first, bae.
      All the porn from Tumblr went to twitter, btw. All of it.
      Hahaha so everybody needs cute dogs in their timeline, huh?

      XOXO

      Delete

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