[ryukoposting]

You nailed it on the head. People dismissing this because it isn't perfectly accurate are missing the point. For the purposes of analytics and surveillance, it doesn't need to be perfectly accurate as long as you have enough raw data to filter out the noise. The Four have already mastered the "collecting data" part, and nobody in North America with the power to rein in that situation seems interested in doing so (this isn't to say the GDPR is perfect, but at least Europe is trying).

It's depressing that the most extraordinary technologies of our age are used almost exclusively to make you buy shit.

[fragmede]

would it be more or less depressing if it came out that in addition to trying to get you to buy stuff, it was being used to, either make you dumber to make you easier to control, or get you to study harder and be a better worker?