Two of my online acquaintances recently contacted me to make certain I made the effort to view the NetFlicks documentary – The Great Hack. Both said something interesting in contacting me with this recommendation. Both said they were so upset after viewing the program that they could not sleep. Strange reaction, but it certainly encouraged me to take a look.
The Great Hack explores the role of Cambridge Analytica in the U.S. presidential election of 2016 and in the Brexit controversy in Great Britain (trailer). I slept fine after viewing, but not because the content was not disturbing. I have followed this issue closely and read multiple books and articles about the specifics. I label the problem as one of bad actors taking advantage of surveillance capitalism and I have written frequently about this topic. Politicians are a great example of this type of exploitation.
What I have found interesting is that so few people I know seem upset about this problem or maybe even believe that it exists. I tend to think they don’t understand, don’t educate themselves, and prefer not to think deeply about their own behavior as it relates to purposeful media manipulation. Perhaps a video presents the same information in a way that engages the viewer and is more likely to have an impact. Hence, if you have NetFlix, put this documentary at the top of your list.
One of my tech friends and I have been writing back and forth considering what people might do to protect themselves from being influenced with their awareness. I hope this is really the problem. I have begun to think of the surveillance capitalism approach as “telling me the story I want to hear”. Our choices over time allow these companies to identify our views of the world and feed these biases with the information we are most comfortable consuming. Accepting we are biased is part of the problem, but the major problem that is being exploited is that we are mostly unaware that this weakness is being used against us and this is happening while we think we are receiving informative content.
Here is the list I offered my colleague:
- I try to use the Brave browser. There are several ways to block cookies especially 3rd party cookies. I like the Brave system because it still allows a way to compensate content creators.
- I use a VPN – this allows me prevent my ISP from knowing what I browse.
- I try to distribute my social media activity across multiple platforms. Facebook is for political opinions
- I also use multiple search engines. DuckDuckGo with Brave.
- In the end, I and everyone else must understand that others are working to influence us in multiple ways. I try to cross checks things. The new phrase to describe this is lateral reading.
The documentary has had a noticeable impact as those implicated have begun to discount the message even threatening legal action.