Posted: February 24, 2024

A not so random, rambling rant

Back in the day, whoever wanted to spy on you had the decency to use their own funds to procure themselves the tools to track you. Now, it seems, we are each footing the bill for our own surveillance. We are each paying our hard-earned cash for the very tools that are used to violate our privacy: our phones, our computers, our cloud services, our cars.

“If the service is free, you are the product,” the saying goes, so, Idiotically, some businesses seek to disguise their intentions by offering you paid storage in their cloud, for nickels and dimes, so you will think of yourself as a “paying costumer.”

And while you are indeed a paying costumer, you may not realize that you have agreed to the same profane “Terms of Service” that grant these “service providers” access to every aspect of your personal life and that, through those profane “Terms of Service,” which you neglected to read, said “service providers” are free to “share” your personal life with any third parties in order to “enhance the products and services that can be offered to you.” Translation:

“You have consented, so we will tell anyone who asks that you have a bad case of hemorrhoids, and you will be bombarded with all sorts of cream, ointment, and suppository adverts, no matter what website you are visiting.” Don’t use your personal computer to give that Google Docs presentation at the next board meeting.

I can picture it already… the mascot of the hemorrhoid cream: a smiley-faced, folksy-looking hemorrhoid, with stick-figure arms and legs, comfortably deflating in a La-Z-boy chair thanks to the soothing, cooling effect of the ointment.