A New Big Brother?

I saw this on the Internet and thought I’d share it with you as it helps you to understand why it is so important to be careful online. Who is watching who on the Internet and Social Media.

It seems that the Internet is getting more and more complicated and Governments are very slow to play “catchup”. It seems to take them years to understand and pass laws stopping some of the things the big companies do on the Internet.

So what the placard said was this (in Bold and Italics):

“Google Filters Your Thoughts”

When you run a search using Google Search Engine (usually via Google Chrome browser) the results are what Google may or may not want you to see. How would you know any different? Trusting in Google to “do the right thing” is all very well and good but what if they don’t? Most people I find are very trusting until something bad happens and then they can become depressed, upset and non-trusting (take being scammed as an example).

It seems strange to most people but Google use your “searches” to build up a picture of you, so then any adverts via Google are “tailored” to your “searches”. Try searching for shoes as an example a lot of adverts are about – yes you’ve guessed it shoes. Who else gets to use this data?

“Apple knows where your mom is”

And they probably know what she is doing as well as where she is. “Find my phone” (iPhone that is) uses GPS so hence where you are. Most people have that feature turned on and hence Apple knows where everyone with an iPhone actually is. Who else do they “share” this information with?” This, of course, can be used for good or bad but like any information who is using it and why is the big question.

“Facebook chooses what you read”

As in the news or as Donald Trump may say “fake news”. Where do you get your news from? I think you can honestly say that every news outlet has its own bias added to the news no matter who they are or where you live. As the old saying goes “never let the truth get in the way of a good story”. So true.

Reading the newspapers or listening to the news programs they are littered with incorrect spellings, incorrect names of people and places, and undoubtedly incorrect facts. I can remember many years ago reading various newspapers in the UK about the Vietnam War they all said a different thing about the same battle. Who was right?

Just automatically accepting what you read to be true is one of the things that you need to be careful about when going online – and off!

“Amazon knows what presents you are getting”

Yes and so does Father Christmas which is all fine – however, Father Christmas doesn’t bombard you with offers, specials and other buying inducing tactics, well not yet anyway. So buying from Amazon online can be good and bad as in the cases above but still do we really want the big companies knowing what you have bought and sharing this with who knows who?

Maybe some items you purchase you may want to keep from prying eyes so maybe a purchase from Amazon may not be such a good idea. Wait until they start using drones to deliver purchases, as Google is now trialling in the US of A.

“Microsoft formats your kids”

As about 80% of computers are Microsoft in the world today that is a lot of people and kids of course at home and school who are subjected to Microsoft’s thoughts and ideas. They start them young and have them forever.

Sounds a little like “big tobacco” doesn’t it? Scary but true. Microsoft Bing definitely “filters” your results. Try this search: Windows 10 sucks. Using Bing search engine you get about 430,000 hits. If you use Google search engine you get about 30 million hits. That’s a massive difference, I know which I believe. Microsoft finally “woke up” to this search about 8 months ago as they used to report something like 430 million hits but then they were searching for each word separately “Windows” then “10” then “sucks” so you can imagine every incidence of Windows, every incidence of 10 and every incidence of sucks…?

Summary

So there you have it. Just be careful what you read, post and search for online as “Big Brother” is watching and you have not even voted for these people.

If you want to search online without being tracked or annoying adverts try using duckduckgo.com as an alternative search engine, it may be what you are looking for.

Advice from Affordable Computer Repairs and Service