Tag: Surveillance

Link: Facebook Surveillance on a Giga-Orwellian Scale

cbcrenshawLeave a comment

We all know Facebook is gathering data on users, but this is surveillance on a truly chilling scale. From the article:

Using a panel of 709 volunteers who shared archives of their Facebook data, Consumer Reports found that a total of 186,892 companies sent data about them to the social network. On average, each participant in the study had their data sent to Facebook by 2,230 companies. That number varied significantly, with some panelists’ data listing over 7,000 companies providing their data.

Even the most fevered conspiracy nuts of the last century could not have conceived of surveillance on this scale.

Facebook and other Meta properties are required in my creative work, but it is long past the time for artists to seriously consider alternatives.

Read more here.

The Vibe Shift

cbcrenshawLeave a comment

You’ve probably heard of the vibe shift.

The vibe shift is whatever you want it to be.

The vibe shift is the death of the unitary internet.

The vibe shift is the re-emergence of local, regional, national constellations of power and culture separate from the astroturfed greenery of the web.

The vibe shift is a return to ‘zines, books, movies, maybe even magazines and newspapers, because the web was once an escape from work and all the responsibilities of “real life” and now it has come to replace them.

Lately I have been leaving my phone in the car when I go places. These insidious toys entered our lives with a simple question: “what if I need it?” I cannot recall a single situation in the past decade when I truly needed a mobile phone. Instead I have begun to ask myself, “what if I don’t need it?” What if a mobile surveillance and distraction device is actually the last thing I need to carry with me?