Apple just requested that I update my iPad operating system. I said “yes” because I kinda trust Apple ... to a degree. I’m not sure that I should have. Big tech is getting more and more cavalier in their abuse of their customer’s trust ... Apple included.
Apple presented me with a statement of privacy and protection that was miles long ... which I didn’t and couldn’t read ... so I have again defaulted to Apple not screwing me. Yet when the new OS was installed, it presented me with all kinds of defaults for directing me to its online AppleStore. Bah humbug! I don’t want this. Already I get an increasing number of unsolicited emails offering me AppleStore “deals.” How can I turn this spam off? I’m certain there is a convoluted way to do this ... that I have neither the time or eyesight to transverse.
So I am now a captive of Apple marketers ... and Apple is among the best of the FAANG companies. I’m also sure Google knows far more about me than I even know about myself ... my email contents, my browsing history, my locations, etc. And it might not be long before it knows all about my finances, my medical history, my DNA secrets!
Combine this with advances in artificial intelligence and big data analysis technologies ... and the entire notion of personal privacy will be an obsolete concept. This really will usher in the age of what science fiction has forewarned us of. When we are prisoners of Bug Brother ... when we are controlled like lab mice running through a maze ... to a predetermined destination ... very much like what the Chinese are doing to the Uyghurs today.
Bottom line — St. James Comey has taught us that we can’t really trust our government ... and now, anybody who is paying attention has learned that we can’t trust big tech either ... even Apple.
If I were much younger, I might be tempted to take to the woods ...
