You have been chosen as the target. The assassin swoops in. Armed with a dossier detailing a host of facts about you - much of which is pulled from social networks - the individual is poised to unleash their assault.
This hired gun knows information about your location, upbringing, relationships and interests. As far as getting to know someone goes, I'd say this would make them rather well-informed about what makes you tick.
Due to the wider economics of the global Internet economy, were this digital sleuth a marketer or advertiser, this information would be a figurative pot of gold. They could use the data you voluntarily put on Facebook or Instagram to determine what food, music or movies you like, and gauge how to best target marketing content at you. Based on the information they have about where you live and what public spaces you frequent, they can determine where in the world their target is most likely to be found.
Further examination of the individual's digital shadow reveals who they interact with, who they have been keeping tabs on (yes, we all engage in occasional Facebook stalking), and what their earning potential is based on their level of education and current job title. And let's not forget the amount of data about your tastes and preferences and what brands we like. With this wealth of information, the assassin is even able to suggest what passwords the target may be using to secure their accounts.
While the above situation is admittedly a somewhat self-indulgent one (and is also based on a US marketing campaign around online security), it does reveal several startling things about what information we voluntarily make available for the entire world to see - particularly when the privacy settings on your social network accounts are ineffective. It's pretty scary stuff. While this may not be too much of an issue for some of us - and something that most tech-savvy people are aware of anyway - the data that we provide when we join a loyalty programme or enter a competition has become a lucrative asset for corporates.
No place to hide
But what is the alternative? For Janet Vertesi the final straw came when Google knew she was engaged before anyone else did. This occurred because the search engine giant reads your e-mails and chats, and knows what you are searching for so that it can better serve you targeted advertising.
Describing herself as "conscientious objector" of Google, after learning that she was pregnant, the assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University opted to conduct a little experiment to see if it was possible to hide her pregnancy from big data.
Further examination of the individual's digital shadow reveals who they interact with, who they have been keeping tabs on (yes, we all engage in occasional Facebook stalking), and what their earning potential is based on their level of education and current job title.
She and her husband were careful about what they posted on social media and asked their friends and family to do the same. Aware that pregnant women are a marketing gold mine, she discovered that hiding this information from big data was both inconvenient and expensive. And it actually made her look like a criminal, having to engage in various sinister activities on untraceable Web sites in order to not be tracked.
What is interesting is how the general public responds to this kind of thing. When former CIA employee and National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, leaked thousands of classified documents to the media detailing the extent of the Obama administration's intricate global surveillance programmes, the world decried the US government for its unsavoury actions. This included listening in on the phone calls of millions of people, including German chancellor Angela Merkel. Bad, bad Obama. And while Snowden was being charged with espionage, reminiscent of the tormented tale of US soldier Bradley (now Chelsey) Manning, the world applauded him for doing the right thing. But when large corporates like Facebook and Google openly admit to reading your private conversations and tracking our online activity, few cry foul.
While Vertesi's experiment is not a call for us all to regress to a society of digital Luddites, her experience is perhaps an opportunity to be more discerning about the services we use. I recently had my bank card cloned and a few hundred rand was taken from my account by someone in Harare. Aside from the hassle of having to cancel the card and go into the branch the next day (who knew actual, physical branches still exist) to get a new one, the incident made me a little anxious about how simple it is for tech-inclined criminals - or governments and corporates - to access your private information and track your digital activity. So be careful out there kids, you never know who may be watching.
* A former ITWeb journalist, Joanne Carew now resides in the Mother City, where she is admiring the mountain and completing her Masters studies at UCT.
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