“UMA CHAMADA ÀS ARMAS PARA LUTAR CONTRA A VIGILÂNCIA DIGITAL ANTES QUE SEJA TARDE DEMAIS”.
RICHARD WATERS, FINANCIAL TIMES

A EDITORA CONTRACORRENTE tem a honra de publicar PRIVACIDADE É PODER, da célebre autora CARISSA VÉLIZ. A obra foi eleita um dos livros do ano de 2020 pela revista The Economist e é sucesso de crítica em todo o mundo.
Antes mesmo que comecemos nosso dia, diversas organizações já sabem que estamos acordados. Eles conhecem nossos horários, nossa agenda e têm conhecimento de nossos gostos e inclinações. Por meio das nossas redes, expomos nossa privacidade a essa indústria digital. Sem nossa permissão, conhecem nossos segredos e traçam formas de manipular nosso comportamento. A tecnologia digital usa nossos dados para exercer poder sobre nossas escolhas. Para retomar o poder da nossa privacidade, precisamos proteger nossos dados.
O que podemos fazer diante desse quadro alarmante? A resposta encontramos neste notável livro que, nas palavras de Elle Hunt, jornalista do The Guardian, é “uma investigação chocante sobre a quantidade de dados íntimos de que estamos abrindo mão. Mas ela tem um plano para reagir”.

There are too many books on privacy, but Carissa Véliz's Privacy is Power renews and extends the arguments in a very tight, focused and direct condemnation of Big Tech. Her argument is not merely that Big Tech abuses its users, but that its power is unnatural, and must eventually be reversed. Privacy will at some point become the norm again. Future generations, she says, will look at this period in history as a bizarre anomaly. That would be a hopeful turn of events. That's how bad it is today.

Her main point is that privacy is a basic human right, and Big Tech should not be allowed to invade and invalidate it at all, but certainly not without clarity and permission. No one should have to opt out, and it most definitely should not be a difficult process, let alone impossible. Most people don't even know what is being done to them, their privacy and their rights. But Véliz is here to tell everyone.

It's a newspeak world for the abusers: "Privately owned advertising and surveillance networks are called 'communities', citizens are 'users', addiction to screens is labelled 'engagement', our most sensitive information is considered 'data exhaust' or 'digital breadcrumbs', spyware is called 'cookies', documents that describe our lack of privacy are titled 'privacy policies', and what used to be considered wiretapping is now the bedrock of the internet economy."

Facebook is the poster child for bad behavior. It is continually being fined all over the world for its unending abuses of personal data. Facebook has been logging all Android-based phone calls and texts since 2015. It has given Netflix and Spotify permission to see and delete private messages. All its fun little quizzes and surveys have only one objective - get the user to give up more personal data. What cannot be had can instead be inferred from things like zip code, purchase history, schools. friends, posts and searches. Microtargeting allows big spenders to send specific ads to specific users, based on personal biases or prejudices in their data.

Donald Trump spent $44 million on Facebook in 2016. He presented six million different ads, making it seem like Trump had the reader personally nailed. Véliz says "Having one of the most powerful corporations in the world know so much about us and allowing it to show us messages that can influence our voting behavior during elections is insane, particularly if we didn't even audit it." "Facebook has not only allowed lies and fake news, it has prioritized them, given that paid ads get access to tools, such as microtargeting that maximize influence."

Data scouring is abusive everywhere: in browsers, on social media, on any site that asks questions, in healthcare, in surveys, elections, and schools. Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Vladimir Putin to try to defuse the Ukraine situation. Putin sat 15 feet away at the other end of a conference table, and stood 15 feet away for their joint news conference. Why? Macron refused to take a required COVID test at the Kremlin. His handlers feared the Russians would use it to obtain Macron's DNA, and who knows what they might do with it. The rest of us mere mortals don't get to turn down such demands. DNA libraries are growing fast. Véliz fears people might one day be required to wear smartwatches. By law. At that point, every heartbeat, drop of sweat and location will be recorded by government, not just Apple.

DNA has proven to be problematic, sending the innocent to prison and making outrageous predictions on health and longevity. In the hands of advertisers, it can become obnoxiously invasive. It is pooled and sold, over and over again. It is available for any purpose the buyer wants.

US courts have shut down government attempts to obtain very personal data without reason or warrants, but no matter. They can just purchase it legally from data brokers, complete with obscene levels of detail. It saves them the effort required, and money is no object.

Smart speakers spy on their owners, sending household conversations back to Amazon and Google. This can include criticizing the neighbors or elected officials, life choices, arguments, financial difficulties, medical issues, plans to be away - everything. Véliz says people should have the minimal manners to let visitors know they have smart speakers.

But the speakers are just the obvious tools. Smart TVs do the same thing - they are always listening. Véliz says: "It tries to identify everything you watch on TV, and sends the data to the TV maker, third parties, or both. Researchers found that one Samsung smart TV had connected to more than 700 distinct internet addresses after being used for fifteen minutes. That’s the least of it. If you had time to read the privacy policies of the objects you buy, you would have noticed that your Samsung TV included the following warning: ‘Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.'"

Smart appliances can be hacked, telling criminals when owners might not be home. Smart thermostats are obvious repositories of that kind of data. if the coffee maker didn't get used this morning, there's an excellent chance no one was there to use it. Smart doorbells add visuals. If you can see it over the internet, so can anyone who wants something from your home.

How can this be allowed? Véliz comes straight to the point; this is theft and coercion. No one should be allowed to gather this level of data on unwitting victims. She says "Bad tech is using us much more than we are using it." The profits from it are colossal. Google, which lives almost entirely off targeted ads, already profited about $10 from each of its more than a billion users back in 2013. Nine years later, it has set new profitability records.

It has long been known that personal data is toxic. National registries were the first target of invading Nazis, seeking lists of all Jews in the country, for example. Today, that level of knowledge is laughably simplistic. Far more depth is available to all who can pay. Even individuals can pay for reports and the victim will have no knowledge of it - until their bank account starts showing unauthorized charges. In an age when elected officials were the targets of nearly ten thousand death threats in 2021, this is worrisome.

Back on the internet, trackers can be planted on the systems of anyone without them having to download a program or app. They can come from single pixels in an email or in an ad. Those sites that even allow users to refuse trackers often make it close to impossible to do so, in a neverending list of checkboxes that must be unchecked individually, while still allowing the content through. Worse, it can happen every time the user visits. There are hot new companies who set up these systems, designed precisely to be discouraging or impossible for the user to opt out of, while fulfilling the legal requirement of notification.

Worse yet, children are being indoctrinated into thinking this is the way life is. Schools monitor internet traffic, record e-mails, and rate children on their conformity. Independence, curiosity and experimentation are issues to be dealt with. Instead of encouraging children to be children, they are teaching them to keep a low profile. Véliz says "Young children depend on their families and schools to protect their privacy. And the current trend is to monitor them from the time they are conceived with the excuse of keeping them safe."

The safety nonsense has really gotten out of hand. It seems to have started with Eric Schmidt, longtime CEO of Google. In discussing privacy for its users, Schmidt wondered "What have you got to hide?" as if it was privacy that was suspicious. But what everyone has to hide is login information, bank account numbers, medical histories, personal relationships, school records, and social media contributions, travel plans and social events among many other things. None of it anyone else's property. In an era when private property is paramount, it is astonishing that Big Tech has got off scot-free with its ever-increasing (if not boundless) abuse.

Where can it lead? Véliz looks to China, where everything is data to be used against you. E-mails, posts, and chats join DNA banks, iris scans, fingerprints, blood samples, outdoor camera networks, cameras and microphones inside people's homes, and local spying to award social points. "By the end of 2019, China had banned almost 27 million people from buying air tickets, and almost 6 million people from using the high-speed rail network."

There is, of necessity and inevitability, a long conclusion of advice, which most readers could probably guess by now. Don't take DNA tests. Don't fill out surveys. Use longer passwords, never the same one twice, and change them often. Clear cookies, opt out of trackers. Keep a separate e-mail account for all the sites that require e-mail addresses. Disclose Smart appliances, particularly speakers and TVs, to visitors. Disclose tagging of photos to the people you intend to tag. Use stickers to block the camera and the microphone on computers.

And protest. Ensure they all understand you object to data collection. Eventually, even Congress might take notice. "Privacy is about being able to keep certain intimate things to yourself – your thoughts, your experiences, your conversations, your plans. Human beings need privacy to be able to unwind from the burden of being with other people. We need privacy to explore new ideas freely, to make up our own minds. Privacy protects us from unwanted pressures and abuses of power. We need it to be autonomous individuals, and for democracies to function well we need citizens to be autonomous."

David Wineberg ( )

"We use fire doors to contain possible fires in our homes and buildings and watertight compartments to limit possible flooding in ships. We need to create analogous separations in cyberspace."

This book is a critical read that reminds us of the importance of privacy in a surveillance society today. It is very accessible for academics and non-academic alike. Touching various subjects such as digital ethics, philosophy, politics in a very engaging way.

Our data is being collected against our interests. We may see it as harmless and beneficial to get a personalized experience using many platforms that help our daily lives. But is the platform truly built for our benefit? Why both governments and corporates want our data? Why is personal data toxic? If we're honest people who don't commit any crimes, why should we care about it? Carissa Veliz answers many intriguing questions about privacy that successfully filled me with dread.

As someone very concerned about personal data, I'm already lurking in the subreddit r/privacy to learn more about keeping my data safe before reading this. But Carissa put many insights that haven't crossed my mind when I'm learning privacy. One of them is that my data affects my own family and greater people if it's abused. It's important to keep this in mind to avoid being skeptical about reclaiming our data. "Privacy is collective and political – it's not just about you."

This book also provides practical suggestions on how to take control of our data, to name a few:
• Use a browser designed with privacy in mind.
• Stop using Google as the main search engine.
• Use a messaging app that offers end-to-end encryption.
• Be attentive to what we're posting online.
• Discuss privacy with friends and family.
• Use privacy extensions and tools such as add-ons, password manager, or VPN.

To care about privacy looks inconvenient, but as Carissa writes here, "convenience has to be weighed against the price we have to pay for it, and the consequences that are likely to ensue." The future of privacy is on our hands now, whether we'll succumb to an extreme version of the surveillance society or a new world that respects its citizen's privacy. ( )