For better or worse, privacy is dead
By Thomas L. Knapp
Columnist
How many times have you casually mentioned buying, say, new curtains to your spouse, then
found yourself bombarded with ads for window treatments the next time you opened a new
browser tab on your computer?
How many times has that kind of thing left you assuming that your phone, smart speaker, etc.
are listening in on your conversations and adding relevant material to advertising databases?
Advertising platforms always deny it, and maybe — MAYBE — they've been technically honest in
denying it. But there's no doubt they track you in various ways, from browser history to phone
location, and that they use the data they gather to target advertising at you.
If your phone notices you visited Home Depot or Lowe's and your browser history shows you
looking at gazebo plans, you'll probably start seeing ads for tools and building materials shortly
thereafter.
Now we have evidence of actual eavesdropping on your conversations.
Last year, Cox Media Group admitted — nay, promoted" — its "Active Listening" technology in a
since-deleted blog post: "Imagine … a world where no pre-purchase murmurs go unanalyzed,
and the whispers of consumers become a tool for you to target, retarget, and conquer your local
market."
Last month, 404 Media reported (in a paywalled article) on a CMG "pitch deck" further
promoting the technology and claiming major partnerships with Facebook, Google, and other
major firms to deploy it. The unconvincing responses from those major firms range from outright
denial to promised "investigations."
If that technology really is just now rolling out for advertisers, my only question is why it took so
long.
We know, courtesy of exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden, that the US government
possesses those kinds of capabilities — the NSA calls it "Google for Voice" — and has been
using them on us for decades. Once the "private sector" knows a thing CAN be done, it figures
out how to do that thing in profitable ways.
Here's the part where most writers start bemoaning our loss of privacy and suggesting ways to
get it back.
OK, fine … I bemoan our loss of privacy. Happy?

As for getting it back, nothing short of full global reversion to a pre-computer level of technology
would suffice.
Am I happy that Bing knows I'm very interested in motorcycles at the moment and keeps
showing me ads and stories about them?
Yes, kind of. It's a little creepy, but also very useful.
Am I concerned that this level of data-gathering will produce terrible outcomes?
Absolutely.
Am I willing to cancel my Internet service, throw away my smart phone and Echo Dot, wear
"facial recognition defeat" clothing everywhere I go, etc. just to keep Google from knowing I'm
house-hunting?
Nope.
For better or worse, privacy is dead.