Digital DNA is the most valuable commodity in the world. All tech and telecom giants will stop at nothing to be able to exploit a person’s personal and professional digital DNA for profit, even at the expense of the person’s privacy and safety.
Once a person purchases a product supported by the Android, Apple, or Microsoft Windows operating systems, that smartphone user becomes a commodity that is auctioned off to the highest bidder.
These companies tell the public that they don’t directly sell their product users’ personal and professional identifiable information to third parties, which is a half-truth—or a lie, depending on how you look at the process of collection and use of digital DNA.
They don’t reveal that they sell access to their product users by way of intrusive pre-installed (“rooted”) and third-party content such as apps that are developed by data-driven technology providers such as Amazon, Facebook, and Baidu, a nation-state Chinese company and Android content developer.
This contradicts the assertion of Apple CEO Tim Cook that Apple products are private, secure, and safe. Apple products, just like Android or Windows products, are also supported by addictive, intrusive, exploitative, and harmful technology developed by Google and Facebook.
Tech and telecom providers have convinced their product users that privacy is dead or not important versus the convenience that apps provide. However, consumers are paying a heavy price in the form of digital authoritarianism and cyber oppression for that convenience.
This loss of our civil liberties, privacy, cybersecurity, and safety rests on the shoulders of the operating system (OS) developers and telecom providers, who control who has access to their users.
Illegal Terms of Use
The exploitative terms of use are, I believe, illegal. That’s due to the sheer size of the legalese that supports the operating system, pre-installed content, hardware, and cloud storage services that, in turn, support smartphones and connected technology in general.The collective published and unpublished terms of use is written in a predatory manner that enables as many as 15 or more multinational companies, including a company from China (Baidu), to simultaneously surveil and data-mine Galaxy Note owners and/or users for financial gain.
To put this in perspective, that meant that when I activated a Galaxy Note purchased from a T-Mobile corporate store in Selma, Texas, as many as 15 or more multinational companies, including a company from China, were enabled to simultaneously monitor, track, and data-mine all of my personal and professional telecom-related information as a result of the uncontrollable pre-installed surveillance and data-mining technology on the phone.
This would be like AT&T selling access to your home and office phone and personal computer to 15 or more multinational companies, enabling each company to surveil and data-mine all of your activity, including confidential and protected content.
It is all the more concerning, given that most people carry their phones with them all day, and that smartphones are fitted with GPS and other tracking technology.
The other factor that makes the collective terms of use illegal is that they are split into online published terms of use and unpublished application legalese, which includes application product warnings that are hidden within the Android OS.
Below is an example of unpublished (hidden in device) Android application legalese and application product warnings that support the Samsung Galaxy Note (Note 2 and 8).
This is just one example of hundreds of application permission statements and product warnings that support nearly every single app that is pre-installed into a smartphone or other connected product.
According to the TX DTPA and FTC, it’s illegal to hide application legalese and application product warnings from consumers, especially since the application legalese explains to the Samsung Galaxy Note owner the level of surveillance and data mining granted to the app developers, such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Baidu, and others.
Violation of Antitrust, Unfair Competition Laws
Aside from violations of consumer laws, there are violations regarding antitrust and unfair competition associated with business relationships between tech and telecom providers.For example, Google can cut exclusive deals involving pre-installed smartphone apps that the product user can’t uninstall, enabling companies such as Facebook, Amazon, and Baidu to limit their competition’s access to smartphone users.
OS and content developers (apps, etc.) such as Google have a huge advantage over their competition because they can indiscriminately monitor, track, and data-mine virtually anyone who owns a smartphone, including business professionals who work for companies that are in competition with Google and their affiliates.
Tyrannical Surveillance Age
We are now living in a “Tyrannical Surveillance Age” that has given rise to corporate authoritarianism and cyber oppression, due to the predatory surveillance and data-mining business practices that dominate telecom, tech, and electronic products of necessity.Rather than being oppressed by way of politics (though one could argue that politics plays a part), corporate authoritarianism is a form of digital oppression associated with smartphones, tablet PCs, and connected technology that’s rooted in surveillance capitalism.
Companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and others are cutting exclusive deals with PC manufacturers, smartphone manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, auto manufacturers, and electronics manufacturers to ensure that all products are supported by predatory surveillance and data-mining technology developed by the technology providers concerned.
Today, it isn’t uncommon to be surrounded by multiple tech and telecom products that are supported by intrusive apps programmed to enable the developer with the ability to control the products’ sensors and hardware.
This means that the app developer can take full control of the sensors and hardware, such as the camera, microphone, and tracking technology (GPS, etc.) that the device has, in order to surveil and data-mine the product user at all times via multiple products.
This means that, at any given time, a person is surrounded by multiple cameras and microphones found in products such as connected automobiles, smart TVs, smartphones, tablet PCs, and PCs, enabling multiple companies to simultaneously take pictures and record audio and video of the product owner’s personal and professional activities at all times without the product user’s knowledge or consent.
To see for yourself, simply read the unpublished application legalese that supports all tech and telecom products you own, such as the Android application legalese below found in numerous smartphones and other connected products.
As you can see, the Galaxy Note user is being monitored, tracked, and data mined by Google and Google content (app) developers 24/7, 365 days a year, regardless if the user is sitting, walking, cycling, or driving.
People won’t be able to take refuge from being exploited for financial gain at the expense of their civil liberties, privacy, cybersecurity, and safety because nearly all tech and telecom products on the market are supported by surveillance and data-mining technology.
Smartphones, tablet PCs, and connected technology in general are also being supported by highly intrusive voice assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Google’s Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana.
These intrusive voice-automated products enable Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to use live cameras and microphones that are programmed to surveil and data-mine the product owner, plus family members, including teens and children.
Paying for the Pleasure
The fact that people are paying for intrusive tech and telecom products while being exploited for financial gain is an example of corporate authoritarianism and cyber oppression.As an analogy, think of it like a person going to work for a diamond mining company that requires the person to buy their own mining tools. Once the diamond miner finds the valuable diamonds, the mining company acquires the diamonds by way of an illegal contract and then sells the diamonds for profit, without compensating the miner for mining the diamonds using the tools he paid for.
Tech and telecom product users aren’t just being exploited but are also being oppressed, because the user pays for the telecom and tech product that contains uncontrollable pre-installed surveillance and data-mining technology, which, in turn, is supported by an exploitative and predatory contract (terms of use) that the product owner can’t understand—or refuse to agree to if he wants to use the product he or she just purchased.
The product owner and/or user is forced to participate within a highly exploitative surveillance and data-mining business model.
In Part 2, I will present the solution in the form of an Electronic Bill of Rights that is designed to protect tech and telecom product users from predatory surveillance and data-mining business practices.
