They Have, Right Now, Another You | by Sue Halpern | The New York Review of Books

Final paragraphs from a review of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy and Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy

"It would be naive to think that there is a firewall between commercial surveillance and government surveillance. There is not.

Many of us have been concerned about digital overreach by our governments, especially after the Snowden revelations. But the consumerist impulse that feeds the promiscuous divulgence of personal information similarly threatens our rights as individuals and our collective welfare. Indeed, it may be more threatening, as we mindlessly trade ninety-eight degrees of freedom for a bunch of stuff we have been mesmerized into thinking costs us nothing."

They Have, Right Now, Another You | by Sue Halpern | The New York Review of Books