WEBVTT

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Today, on Spyware 2.0: "Privacy"

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When we think of a private conversation,

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we think of it taking place between two people.

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And that's how it should be.

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Just between you and the person you're having

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the private conversation with.

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So it should be the same on Facebook.

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But is it?

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When you send private messages to your friend

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on Facebook,

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it definitely feels like

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you're having a private conversation.

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But you're not.

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Because you're having the conversation

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in Facebook's home.

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It's the home of a total stranger

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who pays the rent by spying on you.

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Here's how private messages work

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on Facebook:

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First: you tell this stranger…

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what you want him to tell your friend.

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The stranger takes notes,

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and never forgets,

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and, finally, he relays your message to your friend.

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So when Facebook says "private",

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what they *really* mean is "public."

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In the novel '1984', George Orwell called this "doublethink."

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To understand what Facebook, Google or Twitter mean

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when they say private,

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we have to engage in doublethink.

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So, who is this stranger that

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we're so willing to share our most personal conversations with?

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Let's meet the person behind Facebook,

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its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

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In 2010. in an interview with the New Yorker,

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Zuckerberg admitted that he had the following IM conversation

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with a friend at Harvard

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in the early days of Facebook.

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Zuck says:

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Yea so if you ever need any info about anyone at harvard

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just ask

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i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, SMS

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his friend asks:

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what!? how'd you manage that one?

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To which Zuck replies:

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people just submitted it

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i don't know why

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they "trust me"

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And here's the best bit,

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"dumb fucks."

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So what kind of business does someone

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build who thinks of people

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as "dumb fucks"?

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A business that mines you for your personal information,

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and profiles you.

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A business that tries to understand you

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as deeply as possible because

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that's the insight that it sells to its customers.

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A business that studies and analyses you 24/7

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to understand how best to manipulate your behaviour.

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So, the emotional contagion experiment

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that Facebook published which caused so much uproar

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wasn't a mistake.

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The only mistake Facebook made

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was to publish it.

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It was business as usual

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for a business where you're the quarry being mined,

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the livestock being farmed,

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the lab rats being studied.

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This is a predator-prey relationship.

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And *you're* the prey.

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And companies like Facebook

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share their insight into your life,

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not just with their customers,

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but also with governments.

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Governments love companies like Facebook and Google

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because they store information about hundreds of millions of people

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in one easy-to-reach location.

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And, since the information you voluntarily hand over

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to a third party is not under the same protections

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under the law,

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it's both convenient and cheap for the government

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to ask Facebook for your data.

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Needless to say, none of this bodes well

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for the future of our human rights, our fundamental freedoms,

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or the health of our democracy.

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And that's why we started we started Ind.ie,

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to create beautiful independent alternatives

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to the spyware companies like Facebook and Google.