The Threat Model
LibreTechnica broadly responds to the advents of surveillance capitalism, hyper-consumerism, and other encroachments on our digital rights. These threats are grouped into five domains- one or two of which may be most important to you.
Threat categories
1. Commercial
Keywords
- Ad-trackers
- printers not scanning after ink runs out
Ads, adverts, and commercials. Oh my!
(Control over how your information is monetized) (Alt. Wait, so I am the product?!)
Many of us have taken advantage of the multitude of free services provided by tech companies. And who could blame us? They provide numerous conveniences and benefits to our lives. We can use the most powerful data-finding algorithms to search for even the most obscure information; we can connect and reach out to nearly everyone we know on social network platforms; we can simply ask a sophisticated AI to get anything we want delivered to our front doors the day after we order it.
While it’s hard to imagine what life would be like without these services, it’s even hard to imagine their true costs to us.
“But hold on a sec, aren’t those all free?”
Just because you don’t pay money to use Google, Facebook, or Alexa, it doesn’t mean you give nothing back to them. To use those services, you must agree to let them collect, store, and leverage that data to make money. Essentially, the cost to use those services is your personal data.
It’s important to see companies like Google and Facebook for their business models. We think of Google being in the business of internet technology, but they’re truly an advertising company at their core. Same with Facebook, 98% of their $86bn revenue in 2020 came from advertising (Source: SEC). Facebook’s customers are not the people posting status updates on their profiles; their customers are advertisers- and YOU are what they are buying access to! Is getting angry at your uncle’s Facebook rant worth the company having thousands of data-points on you?
Examples
- You are targeted for ads 6k-10k times per day
- Who is making money off of you?
- Monopolies and duopolies dominate tech
- 1st Amendment does not apply to being deplatformed
- Companies have more control over the things you buy
What you can do
Use open-source technologies.
Use services that do not monetize your private data.
Just pay for services?
Further Reading
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, a book by Shoshana Zuboff - This book details the history, influence, and mechanisms of the companies that render your personal data for profit. A highly informative read that will completely upend your perception of Big Data.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-profit_technology
2. Governmental
Keywords
- Law Enforcement
- Mass surveillance
(Article) Here’s a list of the actual reasons why mass surveillance of NSA, GCHQ etc are problematic
Examples
- Snowden reveals NSA mass surveillance Law enforcement officers often violate civil liberties
- Border agents can conduct in-depth searches of phones and laptops
What you can do
Further Reading
3. Political
Keywords
- Net Neutrality
- Data-protection policies
- privacy laws
- anti-trust
Examples
- Net Neutrality gutted by regulatory capture
- US lacks sufficient data privacy protection laws
- There is little enforcement of anti-trust laws
What you can do
Further Reading
4. Social
Key Words
- mental health
- cyber-bullying
- misinformation
Examples
- Social media grows at the expense of mental health in youth
- Cyber bullying and harassment
- Misinformation is ubiquitous
- Hateful ideas have louder voices Hyper-polarized engagements lead to more ad impressions
What you can do
Further Reading
5. Environmental
Keywords
- e-waste
- consumerism
- planned obsolescence
- right-to-repair
1.1.5.1 hacked Korean printers
- Consumption vs. reusability
- Mining for new raw materials perpetuates environmental destruction Planned obsolescence creates tons of e-waste
- Bitcoin mining produces tons of CO2
What you can do
Further Reading
(Article) Our internet usage and the environmental impact we don’t think about
(Article) Is Your Internet Use Destroying the Environment?
Resources
(Article) Digital Freedom: Are Your Rights At Risk?
Citizen Lab - Citizen Lab is an academic research lab focused on the study of digital threats to civil society and high-level policy engagement.