CONCLUSION

 

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last twenty years, it’s too late for you to do anything about the erosion of your privacy. Too much money and power has been put into spying on everyone all the time for you to be able to totally remove yourself from the spotlight. Too many cool toys and hot deals have been offered in exchange for little pieces of your private life. Criminals have learned too many lessons and gotten way too smart.

No one out there is interested in protecting you. If a corporation offers to hide you from its competitors, it’s only to sell you to its friends. If the government promises to keep you safe, it’s only so you can be pumped full of LSD and locked in a pitch-black room. When a stranger offers to shake your hand, it’s only to steal your rings. The only person actually interested in making sure you’re safe and happy is you.

Time and technology are on the side of the spies. For every new bit of convenience, for every point of contact between you and the outside world, you sacrifice one more tiny sliver of your privacy. As long as there is money to be made off of you, you will remain a target. You will be pressured from every angle to volunteer, to share, to sacrifice, or to sign up.

Ultimately, you decide how much of yourself gets shared with the world. You need not cut yourself off from the modern age in order to live safely and privately, protected both from the corporations that want to exploit you and the criminals that hope to victimize you. You need only put some small measure of thought into who—and what—has access to your life. Consume, communicate, and connect with care, rather than blindly hurling yourself out into the world.

The next time you are asked to give up some piece of personal information, ask yourself this question: Who stands to profit? Who benefits from your sacrifice? Is it you? Or is it a stranger with one hand extended in friendship and the other reaching for your wallet?