They Say Data is the New Oil

🇺🇸 I agree with France. It's not just Chinese apps that are the problem. American apps are a major problem too. They pull data from your phone - all kinds of data. They collect your device ID. With the device ID, they can buy GPS data and determine almost every movement you have ever made while owning that device. They copy all of your personal photos, even the ones you do not specifically select to upload to their platform. They collect your text messages, your contacts, and their phone numbers. They access your microphone and record your conversations. They access your camera and take photos of you without your consent. They collect any and every piece of data they can get their hands on. They collect all of this data, and then they sell it to whomever wants it, including foreign companies, which could be state-owned companies by Russia or China. China has repeatedly stolen data from sources that are not allowed to sell it, like IRS data, bank data, credit bureau data and they match the stolen data with all of the data bought from American data brokers, which is typically collected by American social media companies. Chinese apps like TikTok were created so that China can collect the data they want without needing to buy it from American companies. They also want to control the algorithms used to promote influencers, so they can promote influencers that are "friendly to China." And then there is also the problem of foreign nationals who work at American companies and legally have access to all of the data these companies collect, but illegally share it with foreign intelligence agencies so they may commit transnational repression crimes against critics. None of these apps are considered to be spyware, but they can be used as spyware. And then you have Israeli apps like Pegasus, which are the most invasive of all. Pegasus is real spyware.

I refuse to install any of these invasive apps on my device for any reason. Their latest strategy is to make it impossible for you to complete certain tasks or access certain features without downloading the app to your device. I wanted to update something very simple like my email. There's no legitimate reason to make that feature only available on the mobile device. It was obvious that they did it to force me to download their app, which means I would also have to give them permission to access all of the data on my device as well. So I had my PA buy a brand new phone, paid with cash, download the app, sign in, edit the information, then return the phone. They got a device ID, but it's not my device ID. They got an IP address, but it's meaningless, it's not my IP address. They got a GPS location, the Apple store that completed the transaction, but it wasn't my GPS location. Even if they try to get the transaction details from Apple store, they will get nowhere, because we used cash for the transaction. They got nothing else out of it, because there was nothing else on the phone. Once they can connect a social media profile to a particular device or phone number, they can send a simple text message to you to hack into your device. That's the real problem. No one has my phone number, not even my friends, let alone social media companies. My friends have a number that will be forwarded to an app I have created to prevent these kinds of exploits. Social media companies don't even have that.

You could keep two separate devices. One specifically for these invasive apps, while keeping your photos, texts and other things on another phone. It will prevent social media companies from collecting sensitive photos or text messages, but they will still be able to collect your GPS data, access your mic, access your camera... from the device that the invasive apps are installed on. They will also notice that there are two devices with nearly identical GPS data, and therefore know that they belong to the same individual. Foreign governments can protect themselves by removing the GPS, internal mic and internal camera from devices that are used by government officials, but American citizens are not allowed to do this. It's currently illegal to do this in the USA. (It's not illegal to refuse to fix these things if they break though.) It's becoming extremely difficult to protect yourself from these companies, without a special service designed for this purpose, especially when modern society expects you to maintain a social media presence. Privacy protection is not a task the average user can do on their own. I'm a trained computer scientist.

Protecting your privacy does not mean you are engaged in illegal activities. Those are the kinds of arguments authoritarians make to justify a totalitarian society. You could simply be a pregnant female considering an abortion and you do not want people to know about it. You could be a woman that men are obsessed with and they are trying to access your personal contacts and photos and stalk you. You could be a wealthy gay male and someone wants to blackmail you. You could be a successful businesswoman and your competitors are trying to steal your intellectual property. You could be a political activist and someone wants to harm or terrorize you for your political comments or activities. You could be a brilliant creative and people are looking to steal your ideas. You could be a successful politician and someone wants to assassinate your character. You could simply be wealthy and someone wants to kidnap you for the ransom. There are lots of legitimate reasons and scenarios for protecting your privacy. I think if you don't have any reason to protect your privacy, you must be an extremely boring person with a mindless job.

The real problem is the data collection. The problem is that the USA does not have any regulations on data collectors or data brokers to protect our privacy. That's why we started Paramount, because our privacy is Paramount.

xo