At every moment, everything you are doing is being recorded. You are being watched by computer programs and cameras that are monitoring you everywhere you go in ways. The wildest conspiracy theorists wouldn't have believed 10 years ago. It's worse than you think. You're probably already aware that everything you do online is tracked, recorded and sold to make better targeted ads.
But it goes way further than that, companies in the business of selling your secrets are doing things that go way beyond. You're being monitored in ways never even imagined.
Hospitals and pharmacies: Facebook recently sent their people to several hospitals to try to convince them to sell their patients confidential data. They wanted everything including records of your illnesses and prescription histories. All for what they claimed would be a research project. Officially the information was going to be anonymous because legally the hospital wouldn't be able to give away your medical history with your name on it. The hospitals by the way were fully aware that Facebook wasn't planning on keeping the data anonymous. In fact, the social media giant had promised to get back to them and give them the names of patients who based on their facebook history might need special treatments. The plan was scrapped when Facebook got in trouble for the Cambridge analytic; a data leak.
But, Facebook isn't the only company buying your medical records. There are entire companies that do nothing, but buy medical records and resell them. Rite Aid and CVS have both admitted to selling patient data to these businesses and General Electric and IBM have admitted to buying it. There's a lot of money in it too. The biggest company involved in trading medical information is called IMS Health and they made 2.6 billion dollars in 2014.
But it goes way further than that, companies in the business of selling your secrets are doing things that go way beyond. You're being monitored in ways never even imagined.
Hospitals and pharmacies: Facebook recently sent their people to several hospitals to try to convince them to sell their patients confidential data. They wanted everything including records of your illnesses and prescription histories. All for what they claimed would be a research project. Officially the information was going to be anonymous because legally the hospital wouldn't be able to give away your medical history with your name on it. The hospitals by the way were fully aware that Facebook wasn't planning on keeping the data anonymous. In fact, the social media giant had promised to get back to them and give them the names of patients who based on their facebook history might need special treatments. The plan was scrapped when Facebook got in trouble for the Cambridge analytic; a data leak.
But, Facebook isn't the only company buying your medical records. There are entire companies that do nothing, but buy medical records and resell them. Rite Aid and CVS have both admitted to selling patient data to these businesses and General Electric and IBM have admitted to buying it. There's a lot of money in it too. The biggest company involved in trading medical information is called IMS Health and they made 2.6 billion dollars in 2014.
Apple: It checks your bank account. Apple filed a patent in 2015 for a brand new program that would constantly run on your iPhone. Its whole purpose was to watch while you check your bank account and your credit cards, find out how much money you have and sell your bank balance to advertisers. They didn't even try to hide what they were doing. The patent specifically says and this is a direct quote. Goods and services are marketed to particular target groups of users based on the amount of prepaid credit available to each user or in other words, they'll look at how much you owe on your credit card and share the information with any advertiser willing to pay officially.
Apple pretended that they have no plans of actually using it. Their CEO Tim Cook has made great big speeches saying that spying on users for monetary gain is wrong and not the kind of company that Apple wants to be. But, it's a little hard to believe that Apple planned, designed and patented a program just to not use it. Apple definitely has the ability to check your bank account and it's only reasonable to assume that they're using it.
Retail stores: They track your movements. When a company offers you free Wi-Fi, are they're not just doing it out of the goodness of their hearts?? They're doing it so they can track everything you do in their store when you connect to the Wi-Fi. The store gets to track where you go and what you look up. They track what you look at on your phone, where you went and what you bought and yes they know if you try their stuff out, order it on Amazon and go home without spending any money.
Apple pretended that they have no plans of actually using it. Their CEO Tim Cook has made great big speeches saying that spying on users for monetary gain is wrong and not the kind of company that Apple wants to be. But, it's a little hard to believe that Apple planned, designed and patented a program just to not use it. Apple definitely has the ability to check your bank account and it's only reasonable to assume that they're using it.
Retail stores: They track your movements. When a company offers you free Wi-Fi, are they're not just doing it out of the goodness of their hearts?? They're doing it so they can track everything you do in their store when you connect to the Wi-Fi. The store gets to track where you go and what you look up. They track what you look at on your phone, where you went and what you bought and yes they know if you try their stuff out, order it on Amazon and go home without spending any money.
Macy's, BMW, Topshop, Morrison's and countless shopping malls have all acknowledged that they track their customers through their smartphones and there's no telling how many just don't.
Facebook : It tracks your phone calls. When news of the Cambridge analytical scandal broke, Facebook got in trouble in March 2018 for recording every phone call users made on their Android devices. Facebook had full details on whom they've called, how long they spoke to them and every text that they'd sent. Facebook insisted that they weren't actually listening in on the calls but other companies definitely do it.
A company called pudding media even made it their entire business model. Pudding media had going out of business probably because they were too honest about what they were doing. But although Facebook and Google deny listening to our phone calls, a lot of people are pretty sure that the targeted ads they've seen suggest that they're lying.
Facebook : It tracks your phone calls. When news of the Cambridge analytical scandal broke, Facebook got in trouble in March 2018 for recording every phone call users made on their Android devices. Facebook had full details on whom they've called, how long they spoke to them and every text that they'd sent. Facebook insisted that they weren't actually listening in on the calls but other companies definitely do it.
A company called pudding media even made it their entire business model. Pudding media had going out of business probably because they were too honest about what they were doing. But although Facebook and Google deny listening to our phone calls, a lot of people are pretty sure that the targeted ads they've seen suggest that they're lying.