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Flashmag April 2019 www.flashmag.net
When one combines data collection with the desire to control or manipulate, the possibilities are endless. Former business professor at Harvard University Shoshana Zuboff, calls "monitoring capitalism" the use of databases generated by the activity of Internet users. Anything that can be captured about citizens, often with outrageously fraudulent scheme like Facebook Messenger, that can activate the microphone and the camera of your smart phone unbeknownst to you, is sucked up and monetized by data brokers, and the marketing specialists. These data are grouped into probability algorithms, which tell advertisers what you could buy, insurance companies if your risk is good,
colleges if you're an attractive candidate, courts if you're likely to commit another crime, and so on. And the monitoring does not just stop at the materially visible data. Encouraging researches aimed at reading the thoughts of individuals are being implemented, with the proposal of new electronic gadgets that offer for example to turn on and off the light bulbs of your home by though, are nonetheless other schemes to get into the meanders of your consciousness to read and use it for other purposes, because, manipulation, speed and anticipation, remain essentials in the strategy of neuromarketing.
Hubert Marlin
Journalist
Gerd Altmann