It’s a scary world and everyone wants a brother–even if it’s Big Brother. So we’ve opened up our hearts and minds (and smartphones) in a way that allows government and corporations unparalleled access into our habits, our desires. No military intervention, no daunting dictators are necessary if we all willingly transform from citizens into consumers. But something tells me that a decentralized media and the people using it are too difficult to control–and will only grow more so as time goes on. From Damien Walter’s new Guardian article, “Future Tech: Big Brother, Big Data or Creator Culture?“

“Today we perhaps have less to fear from the iron fist of Big Brother (although force is never far out of the picture) than from the insidious manipulation of big data. Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier’s new book (Big Data: A Revolution) cracks open one of the most revolutionary aspects of modern technology – the huge amount of data on our behavior it gives us access to. Technology that we take for granted, from smartphones to social networks, harvest a vast array of data on the minutiae of our lives. What we buy. Where we go. Who we talk to. What we believe. Why we believe it. And the bulk of this data is delivered, unquestioningly, in to the hands of a just a few technology providers – Google and Facebook being the market leaders.

Big data has many positive applications, but the potential for oppressive uses is undeniable. Whether it’s manufacturing consent for an election campaign to deliver the right candidate, or developing consumer products so perfectly targeted to our psychological weaknesses that we can barely resist buying them, the data is now there to facilitate unparalleled levels of control over the public. And it’s for sale, an explicit and ever more profitable part of the business of modern technology companies.”