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Showing posts from September, 2019

From cars to data

living in an era of digital feudalism. Here’s how to take your data and identity back We’re over two decades into an era of digital feudalism. Feudalism is a centuries-old concept. In medieval times, the nobility owned vast amounts of land. Serfs worked the land to create value, but most of that value was confiscated by the landlord. Instead of farm produce, today the new asset class is data—created by us, but captured by digital landlords such as social-media companies, search engines, online retailers, governments, and banks. “Surfing the internet” has become “serfing the internet,” with users giving up intimate details of their lives for the internet lordships to aggregate, expropriate, and monetize. We, as the serfs, only get left with a few lousy cabbages. This is important, because this data isn’t just the biproduct of your labor. It is the stuff of your identity in the digital age. All this data constitutes a “ virtual you .” The digital crumbs th...