Sep 20, 2017

Google offers to take food pictures for me

by Denis Churilov, September 20, 2017

You know you’re boring when even the NSA doesn’t bother collecting data on you.
I feel sorry for the large IT-corporations, though. Unlike government agencies, I give them my personal information voluntarily just by using their services, so they HAVE TO store and analyse it all (regardless of whether they want to) to find patterns for target advertisements (not that there is much variety in the data about my life… just saying).
Whenever I go to a local restaurant, Google Search app notices it through GPS-tracking and offers me to take pictures and write a review. So thoughtful of it. It always knows what I’m up to and what I’m about to have (pfff, as if I’m impressed by it; the staff in all local fast-food stores know me by my name and what I’m going to order at any given day of the week too). I’m wondering when will my phone start sending me notifications saying something like “What? Nado’s? This place again? Really? Denis, have you ever thought of trying something different? Also, how many times have you eaten today already?”. I bet the only reason why it still doesn’t do that is because it also secretly listens to what my friends say to me, so it doesn’t want to parrot them.
Scary to imagine what Google and Apple know about me.
Like, for instance, Google knows that I visited my parents’ last week. Their Google Photos algorithms even analysed the geo-data from all the 356 new cat pictures on my iPhone and kindly (but indifferently) offered me to move them all into the same album. Just imagine what kinds of patterns Google algorithms would have uncovered if I were using a full Android handset! The information overdose would be so high the Google bot would develop self-consciousness and quit his job due to severe existential crisis caused by chronic boredom.
Facebook is another beauty. Just to think how much it knows. All your photos, whom you were with, where, and at what time – it has seen it all, it knows it all (even if you don’t tag yourself). The big data tells them everything. Facebook even analyses the content of your status updates. It can pick up your personality traits (according to the Five Factor Model) with high accuracy, tell your movie preferences, identify your interests and hobbies (assuming you have them). Facebook probably knows more about you than you do. Creepy.
Some things should remain personal at all costs, though. Politics is a taboo. I try not to post much about politics or make comments on current news on Facebook, or elsewhere on the Internet. Don’t want the big corporations to figure out my opinions and political views (I’m Liberal-Stalinist).
The Big Brother is always watching. So, watch what you post, what you like, and what you share!