[tempfs]

This is exactly how you get around those pesky laws that prevent you from doing it yourself as a governing body. You just let/encourage/look-the-other-way as private companies do it for you then you just buy access from them. All perfectly legal since those private companies are busy selling your private data to anyone and everyone else.

The advent of smartphones, social media, search engines, pervasive online shopping are all absolute boons for surveillance entities.

And the best part is that the users/public just gives all of this info up willingly and for free.

[resonious]

I think many users, even if they do know that their information is being sold around, don't care. They don't know how it may effect them negatively.

Especially since it's been happening for awhile now and nothing outright bad has happened to most individuals. They just enjoy using Instagram. They see a targeted ad and are like "oo scary... they know me" and then continue on.

[ethbr0]

> The advent of smartphones, social media, search engines, pervasive online shopping are all absolute boons for surveillance entities

The only way to avoid this would have been to design the Internet as something Tor-like from the beginning, which would have been impractical from an efficiency standpoint.

[thoughtstheseus]

Yeah, today data is worth more than oil.

[tenebrisalietum]

I don't know why. How many different ways do companies have to look at me to understand I am broke?

[dotancohen]

It's not your money they are after. Some advertisers are interested in your money. Other advertisers are interested in influencing your opinion.

If you are in the US: Should you support Israel?

If you are in the UK: Should you vote to leave the EU?

If you are in Germany: Should you support US troops in Asia?

If you are in Australia: Should you support economic treaties with China?

Advertising techniques can sway you - and large portions of the population - into supporting or not supporting many facets of policy. If the Arab states want to destroy the Jewish state today, they would not send troops. They would fund influence of opinion of the American and European population.

Actually, they already do.

[yhoneycomb]

Not sure if it’s any worse than the pre-internet days, with print media making everyone believe that there was only one single truth. Nowadays you hear a lot more diversity of opinion rather than just ISRAEL GOOD (ie, Israel maybe isn’t the good guy here and their troops maybe shouldn’t be shooting kids in the street and sexually harassing Palestinian women).

[ethbr0]

You do hear more diversity of opinion, however, the average quality has certainly lowered.

Unfortunately, the average person's intelligence has remained constant.