Remember that Police hit: “Every breath you take…every move you make…I’ll be watching you…”? I’m dating myself but that’s one of my all-time favorite songs, despite the fact that it’s more than a little creepy.
Whether you realize it or not, that’s your relationship to Big Tech. Big Tech is watching you and Big Tech is monetizing you, making money off of every move you make.
When we think of our online presence being monetized, we think about ads and advertising revenue. Advertisers have been paying TV and radio stations to put advertisements in front of us for decades, and the Internet should be no different. That’s just part of the story now. Yes, Internet companies are profiting from putting advertisements in front of your eyes and into your ears. But the real money is made by selling data about you that you’re giving them for free by using their “free” products.
That’s where the social media Big Tech giants come in. Everything about your online presence is constantly monitored and monetized. What type of ads do you scroll past, and which ones do you pause to look at? What do you click on? What do you search for? Who are you friends with, and how often do you interact with them? Are there certain social media pages you follow? What news websites do you read? What have you been posting about online? Who else is in your pictures — do they have a social media profile too? What movies, shows, and songs do you like? What decade were you born in, and where do you live now? These are just a sample of questions that Big Data knows the answers to just by watching you online and hoovering up your personal, private data. Remember Big Brother from 1984? That’s Big Tech now.
Everything you do on your phone can be collected, databased, and sold to companies that are hungry for your data. The more they can learn about you, the better they can market themselves to you, the more they and their advertisers can sell to you, the more you become the product too. Your smartphone is happy to cooperate with these companies. It’s past time we took our own data back. The question is, how?
A new phone hitting the market this week may be the answer. Every new smartphone needs a killer app to compete. The iPhone has the Apple ecosystem and iOS. The Pixel and Galaxy phones have killer cameras. But they all pipe your data to Big Tech.
One phone is different though. The Freedom Phone is the new kid on the block and its killer app is data privacy. Information independence. Data destiny.
The Freedom Phone, built by Erik Finman, is designed to wall your data off from Big Tech. Finman, 22, is the world’s first bitcoin millionaire. His team has come up with specially built smartphones designed to resist Big Data and keep your information off of their servers. By using devices built from the ground up to resist Big Data, you can take your data back. A friend of mine has had one for about a week. Curious, I bugged him for the tech specs. They’re solid: Octa-Core processor, 64 gigs of memory, expansion slot to add memory, dual SIM card slots, 32-megapixel front and 24-megapixel rear cameras (both superior to the primary and secondary cameras on the flagship Samsung Galaxy S21 though not the top-end Ultra in terms of resolution), 1080p full HD video, and a big 4150 mAh battery. It runs on its own secure FreedomOS, has a free speech-friendly PatriApp store, and comes pre-loaded with free speech champions including Rumble, Parler, and more. It’s all designed to protect your data and your constitutional rights.
There comes a time when everyone has their eyes opened and sees the world around them for what it really is. Big Tech isn’t some benevolent group of smart people who make cool stuff. Big Tech is Big Brother, waiting to scoop up your data, monetize it and then weaponize it against conservatives — until it decides to throw us in Facebook jail, kick us off Twitter, and cancel us from the culture. This can’t go unanswered forever.
Apple ran an iconic ad decades ago calling on computer users to “Think Different.” That ad showed a courageous woman smashing Big Brother. Unfortunately, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Amazon are Big Brother now. They’re all woke and anti-freedom. They’ve become the online thought police. It may take devices such as the Freedom Phone to smash the digital state, help us all stop being the product, and control our data destinies.
Thinking of upgrading your phone? Maybe it’s time to really think different and opt for some freedom.
