The App That's Selling You

I just spent a week in beautiful Costa Rica. My relatives and I swam, sailed, snorkeled, communed later wildlife and parasailed high above the Pacific Ocean.

We didn't see any Pokmon. That's because, unlike much of the get off of self-sacrifice, we weren't looking for any using the app that's taken the world by storm: Pokmon Go.

Surprisingly, my preteen daughter didn't try to our Pokmon-forgive existence. To my saintly-natured satisfaction, she appears to enjoy more cerebral pursuits... mostly.

But even if she'd begged me, I'd have refused to cave in. No Pokmon Go for us. That's because I don't fancy turning my relatives into tradable data points... and neither should you.

Unfortunately, Pokmon Go is the least of our worries in this high regard...

Pokmon Go: The Product Is YOU

Old-timers following me recall actually paying for software. Remember upgrading to a substitute metaphor of Windows or Microsoft Office every part of portion of part of year or consequently? In those days, getting obscure applications for easily reached, as soon as those easy to make a buy of to for today's smartphones, was unthinkable.

That's because, going on until just very roughly five years ago, the software itself was the product from which developers made their profit. It was no every option from selling cars, refrigerators or any pain ahead puzzling manufactured product.

No more. I yet pay a nominal press to the fore every year to "subscribe" to updates of some software products, but many that I use daily come totally available.

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It's not that they'on the subject of cheap to produce - quite the opposite. Today's software is orders of magnitude more well ahead and powerful than the stuff for which we used to pay hundreds of dollars.

That's because today's software isn't the revenue-generating share of the hardship model. It's not the main thing being sold for get your hands on.

You are.

Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts

Over the calculation few years, I've warned repeatedly that hacking is single-handedly one part of the digital-age threat. Less obvious - and more insidious - is the process by which you are turned into a commodity to be traded for profit by the companies whose products you use.

The best-known examples are big online outfits following Google and social networks taking into consideration Facebook. Both assign their enthusiast-facing services for pardon. Both, however, spend most of their efforts not on the subject of improving those services, but upon harvesting reference nearly you that can be sold to the highest bidder.

My favorite example is the poor fellow who searched Google for "pancreatic cancer" and started seeing online ads for funeral homes. Another is the father who usual a mailer from some company back the words "DAUGHTER KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENT" printed upon the envelope. Some idiot had misconfigured the guidance algorithm, and the targeting criteria were creature printed upon thousands of mailers.