You’re Not Pissed Off Enough About The AI Data Heist
The perpetrator of the first great data heist was Facebook. For years, we happily wrote posts, uploaded pictures, tagged friends and family, used marketplaces and scrolled through content, encouraged — perhaps even brainwashed — to develop a deep addiction to the platform.
It was all fun and games for the early years until we learned the true goals of the platform. It wasn’t to “connect the world” — it was to bleed the world dry of data points. Facebook was actually a kind of data succubus, and its relentless harvesting allowed the company to develop the most sophisticated character profiles that could be targeted with unseen levels of accuracy by advertisers. To borrow the now all too familiar adage — Facebook wasn’t the product; we were the product.
For the most part, Facebook got off lightly. It was hit with a few fines that were the equivalent of pocket change. It denied it knew this or did that, and Zuckerberg would defend the platform, claiming data was a small price to pay in the mission to connect the world (ironically, something the platform no longer does). When egregious scandals like the Cambridge Analytica data harvest made news, the public finally showed a little bit of outrage… until it didn’t. A few people sounded the alarm, but most carried on posting, engaging and poking each other. (yup, still gross).
