Is the current level of online data collection actually improving lives?

There is a lot of data being collected about you ALL the time. 

When you use your phone.

Where you shop.

How you shop.

When you shop. 

What you buy, when and where. 

This is tracked via numerous methods from your GPS in your phone to your credit card use, or paypal use or online cookies tracking what sites you view, your browser, your social media.

Yes, we are already living in George Orwell's 1984 and Big Brother is everywhere.  It goes by various names:  Alexa, Siri, Watson, Microsoft, Equifax, Google, Cambridge Analytica, Amazon, and hundreds of others.   

The thing is, most of this data collection is designed to SELL things to you that you already want.  Sometimes it makes suggestions and offers for things you need.  

Some of this can even help improve improve our health.  I purchased a fitness tracker and paired it with My Fitness Pal (if you use this they had a data breach a month ago and you need to change your password).  I used it to lose weight and now help me maintain a healthier lifestyle by tracking my physical activity. 

But that data is also collected and used for sales purposes.  

In my case I spent a few hundred dollars on under armour clothes and underwear after trying them thanks to a coupon after losing weight from my fitness pal.  (No I am not sponsored or currently receiving any paid endorsements from under armour but I am not opposed to the idea.)  Anyway, why I switched to under armour underwear is because I no longer have swamp ass on a regular basis.   Yeah, with the cotton underwear I would sometimes need to change underwear mid day or go to the bathroom just to let it air out.  So for me, in this one instance of marketing success, I found a product that has improved my daily comfort and the marketer got a new customer because their product targeted someone who benefited from the improvement.   

Then you look at the case of someone like Cambridge Analytica who basically manipulates global elections for money and you wonder if the data collection is evil.  

It's not.   Data is data.   What people do with it can be good or evil depending on your point of view.

Here is a different example: I possess many of the skills and training to hack into computer systems to manipulate people and data. 

I don't,

at least not unless I'm paid to with express written permission in order to test system weaknesses and assess vulnerabilities.   Instead I spend my time hardening systems and educating people about how to be safer and more aware of what they do and how the internet works. 

Cambridge Analytica manipulates elections for the highest bidder globally.   

So does it improve lives? 

It can.

But there is also a cost. I don't know if it is worth it, but I accept that we already live with big brother and the awareness keeps me from spending more than I take in.  

I also have drastically reduced my consumption of news from social media because of this and only go for more neutral direct sources like AP, NPR, BBC for US news. 

Thank you for reading.

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