By The Truth Reporter:
The title of this article is inspired by the superb film ‘The lives of others’ which takes place in East Germany during the height of the power of the Stasi who ran a regime of brutal political repression, intrusive surveillance and arbitrary detention right up until the fall of the Berlin wall. If you haven’t seen this film then I would recommend you do since it gives you an insight into how state repression works and how once people submit to state control the devastating consequences that follow.
Sadly, we face now a far more dangerous era, one in which an all encompassing grid of social media and big data has us forever in the spotlight. I do not plan to launch into a description of how different social media companies use or misuse your data as if you are still reading this far then you know all this already.
What we have seen in the past few days is that the degree of coercion that can be exerted by controlling what you can or cannot access or by controlling your access to internet services is huge. Despite Parler promising to be back online within a week they have now found that most suppliers will no longer deal with them – they will be lucky to ever get back online.
One cannot help but feel that many of the huge names that have found themselves on the wrong end of this censorious digital purge have been hopelessly naive or have simply ignored the lessons of recorded history. Another useful allegorical reference from the film world is contained in ‘The Pianist’ (2002) which plays out in the Warsaw ghettos. Again and again the Jewish people keep saying ‘it can’t get any worse than this’ and every time it gets a lot worse – with the eventual fate being as bad as it could possibly be.
The basic lesson from history should be that governments, their secret agencies and those who operate on their behalves can be relied upon to serve themselves first and the public a distant second. Sadly now the entire apparatus of silicon valley have joined this nexus and while they tempt you with free email accounts, video on demand and social media jollity – all on that magic sliver of metal and glass in your hand.
Ok, enough of the soft soap introduction – sadly you’re now faced with a stark choice, you can either disconnect from this digital dystopia or be enslaved by it. I am afraid this is a basic truth, I don’t believe there are any half measures available. This is a system which you must live outside of if you expect to preserve your freedom.
When Facebook insists that you must use your real name on their platform why do think that is? And why would you comply when there is no penalty for not doing so other than the potential removal of the account? When twitter demand your mobile phone number in order to set up an account – what does that mean for your privacy? When people find the police knocking on their door after they lose their temper and use that platform to vent their anger they create a stream of incontrovertible evidence which is then instantly made public for all to see, record and then report to whoever they wish.
At the end of the day everyone is creating data at a massive rate, each email, text, instant message, picture, live stream or social media post all have other data added. GPS locations, timestamps and many other tags are attached to every single one. When you analyse these in bulk in their millions it enables a huge range of other metric to be extracted, which are then sold to other agencies. The old adage ‘if the service is free then you are the product’ is very apt.
So what can you do? – you can make a choice.
You can choose the instant gratification and convenience that comes with these digital hegemonies or you can leave them behind and shut them out of your life and unplug yourself from the grid. Below are a list of actions I have taken – you can choose to follow them or not, the choice must always be yours.
Delete all social media accounts with your real name on.
Cease to use Google Android or IOS phones.
Access social media though pseudonymous accounts using only a browser not an app.
Get a VPN service and use it.
None of these things is difficult, doing so may incur some minor inconveniences but if you compare your life now to how people lived only 30 or 40 years ago, I think you’ll agree even without Android or Iphone you’re immensely better off.
You don’t have to do without YouTube or Facebook or anything, just STOP giving them real data to work with. There is a very old phrase about computers – ‘garbage in garbage out’. If all you supply the system is garbage then the data they churn out of your details is also garbage.
You can leverage this further with a VPN which means that their algorithms will attribute your geographic location incorrectly and so whatever ideas they generate about you or your behaviour will be wrong.
In short – what you have to assume is that any information you give out can be used against you, make sure that information is of no use.
Opinions from the Unity News Network (UNN) editorial team & various contributors. | UNN always clearly distinguishes between news and opinion pieces and as an open minded outlet we publish views from a variety of people and organisation that do not necessarily reflect the views of UNN or its writers. Articles published under UNN Opinions are always opinion pieces and if published on behalf of a contributor will contain that authors name at the start of the piece.
