I spoke to a Verizon employee to get some insight on how he felt about this whole Mark Zuckerberg debacle, and he said that he finds it hard to believe that they could do much with harvested data. He was also in denial about microtargeting.
I just sat in the chair, sipping my drink, trying to think about the best way to address this matter, so I just went head-on. I told him that collecting the data is not as much a problem as weaponizing it.
He then told me it didn’t affect him much because he’s not on Facebook.
They retrofitted the election process without our knowledge or consent, and this gentleman thinks since he’s not on Facebook it doesn’t affect him. What happens to our neighbors and our government can impact our lives in mighty ways.
Prince Charles once said: The West has much to learn from societies and places, which, while sometimes poorer in material terms, are infinitely richer in the ways in which they live and organize themselves as communities.”
We need to build better communities so we can harness the intended power of our technology. Some people believe that we should shut it all down. I know that is absurd and it would make our country sitting ducks.
We clearly have a major war that’s been brewing for sometime and things are coming out in the open. Today Elon Musk said sarcastically, “What’s Facebook?” I’m not sure if Mark can honestly answer that question anymore.
It’s hard when you get targeted in such a way.