It’s amazing how dependent I became on the internet. And I believe I am not the only out there. It reached as far as the interaction with the government, and all tax returns must be done if you reach a certain income and other departments as well.
People from my generation and the previous one as well were deadly afraid and determined to not give out sensitive information about your private sphere such as your bank account number, license plate, credit card information and so on. We didn’t want Big Brother watching us.
We were right not to give our precious personal information to the government because the private sector did a far better job in creating it the mega database. We preferred to start giving them to AOL back then. Then came along the social media Apple Amazon and so on.
WE created Big Brother, and we did a far better job as we even have our private conversation on Facebook retrieved if the government ask for.
I had watched a fascinating TV show on hackers, spying and so on, the TV show’s Min topic was the illegal phone tapping of the UK Royal Family. And at one point the anchor ask a guest who was the top executive of the largest PI firm in France, the following question; how long does it take to round up sensitive info on anybody with today’s technology versus back then when we had none. The answer was short and straight to the point, 3 hours now instead of 3 weeks then.
We created this colossal database for free, and we gave away everything we didn’t want to, including photos, videos of not only ourselves but also our surrounding.
We can’t complain about it because we did it. Now you can’t do anything on the web unless you give information out. It became our way of living, and you’ll see one day we’ll be giving out our medical record online on some super secure BS storage scheme. And the worse part is that we won’t be able to do otherwise and or we won’t be attended to. I don’t know how far we are from it, but I guess it’s just around the corner.
The pharmaceutical lobby is pushing for it in order to maximize their R&D and sales based on this data. A good friend of mine, a pediatrician, was even suggesting that one day we will carrying under our skin our entire medical history. The doctors will have some sort of scanner and will be able to read your whole medical life. Okay, we had a few, granted, but it doesn’t seem to me to be an unrealistic scenario.
You can probably feel my reluctance to all this, but I have no choice but to join in. As the saying goes “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
Having said that we still need some watchdogs and not let our lives become totally virtual
Peace and serenity
Lawrence
Being bipolar. 
Completely true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can see where you are coming from and it is quite scary to face the reality: we are now less reluctant to give out information about ourselves, because what we get back is very alluring: social media, perks in games, more connections, more knowledge, more interactions. It seems worth it. Until all those data ends up in the wrong hands or is used for harmful goals. I personally am quite good at ignoring all kinds of personal based advertisement, offers and all that kind of stuff. But it becomes scary when someone can just google you, tap into your phone or even publish your private Skype conversations and share them with the world. I think just like with everything else in life: you are still in control of what you feel comfortable with. It is about weighing the pros and cons, and knowing where your limits are. And do not trust people blindly, read everything before you click the “I agree” button and speak up if things are going into directions that seem harmful to you, the community or people in general.
Great post!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much for reading and commenting on my post. I totally agree with your reply.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it’s also worth keeping in mind that anything we choose to put out there online we should consider as being out there in the public domain regardless of what our privacy settings may be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree
LikeLiked by 1 person