You misunderstand the meaning and intent of tracking.
I care nothing about folks monitoring my physical position when out in public. Even if your car doesn’t tattle on your location, cameras and license plate readers are all legal and their results can be correlated. My neighbors can tell my other half who came and went during the day – as I can about them. And my movements – at least on this street.
I dress in essentially the same (identical!) distinctive style EVERY DAY (except wash day). So, neighbors with poor vision can still recognize me at a distance.
Your location reveals very little about you – unless you are coming out of some known crime scene or particular place of business. Or, as below, your old girlfriend’s house!
But, your activities speak volumes. Who you talk to, what you talk about, what time of day, what you eat, where you shop, where you buy your clothes, how often you have your hair cut, etc.
I’m automating the house. I will be able to tell (anyone!) how much time you spend in any given room, what you are likely doing there, how often you piss, shit, eat, sleep, WHAT you eat – and when, how often you wander out to check your mailbox, who you talk to on the phone, the content of each of those calls, etc. As a single datapoint, these things mean very little. But, when you address data-in-the-large, they reveal all sorts of things about you that YOU may not even know – yet.
Yours is the attitude of yong people who have “given up”. Many have yet to realize the consequences of that surrender. Perhaps when they go to apply for a mortgage and no one will give them a good rate (“Our data suggests you don’t take good care of your personal health. This correlates with taking poor care of your financial health. We see that as an increased risk…”) Or, when they are in line for an organ transplant and the data suggests they have a substance abuse problem or poor eating habits that might make the decision to award them a (scarce) organ less likely.
Or, facebook/tinder/whatever discloses their assessment of you to a potential date/mate – and, they err on the side of avoiding you because your behaviors suggested (to facebook et al.) you may be a spouse abuser (based on correlation with data obtained from KNOWN spouse abusers). Or, a drunk. Or, a poor earner. Or, heavily in debt. Things that you LIKELY wouldn’t discover on your own until you had lost any chance of influencing the outcome.
You have no control over how your data is used and interpreted. And, can’t take it back, after the fact (at least in the US).
And, there are no guarantees that it is CORRECT or that the models have a rational basis. Ask ChatGPT why it decided to utter whatever it did. And, to explain why it hallucinates.
People with access to LOTS of data about behaviors and activities AND other “important” data that you likely don’t think about (e.g., what your current debt load is, your monthly electric bill, number of times you visit a drug store, whether you frequent a health-food store, exercise, take yoga, attend AA meetings, visit dispensaries, get your hair done, etc.)
A bunch of data that, in itself, is meaningless – for ONE individual.
But, with exactly the same technologies used in the LLMs that are in the news, one can correlate observations about YOU with observations about OTHERS.
“People who pee more than 6 times a day are likely to have prostate problems”
“People who snack in the middle of the night are likely diabetic or prediabetic”
“People who drive red cars and shop at target are more likely to be addicted to recreational drugs”.
etc. No one will be able to explain why particular correlations exist – just like an LLM AI can’t tell you why it said what it said; it just noticed a pattern and doesn’t understand “why”.
But, with big data, you can get some reasonably high degrees of correlation – especially if you can make LOTS of observations! Hence how ChatGPT can APPEAR to be intelligent.
Why do you think your insurance company wants to give you a FREE device that monitors for “power line disturbances” in your home? Or, your electric/gas company wants to give you a free thermostat? Or, google wants to read your email? Or, keep track of who you are calling using google phone? Or, which web sites you are visiting – and when?
Data has value to them, regardless of whether its content makes any obvious sense. If it has value to them, it most definitely has a cost to you! They are in business to make money. That money has to come from somewhere/someone!
Once you have data and number crunch for the correlations (old technology, just bigger computers), you can make enhanced predictions about a person – ANY person. That is valuable to others as it can introduce a positive bias in the expected value of their interactions with you. If you could predict which way a coin would land with 51% reliability, you have a big edge over someone who is stuck with simple “chance” (50%).
If an insurer can deduce that you are 1% more likely to cost them $X, they can factor that into your premium - and share that risk assessment with other insurers so there’s no other options for you to avoid their assessment. You might think this unfair as the data hasn’t been PROVEN to represent your risk, as an individual. But, you won’t even know it is being done. And, will be helpless to do anything about it: “Members of the Select Committee, we set our pricing schedule based on an assessment of the following data points that we have correlated with these particular cost factors. Obviously, we are just trying to control our risk and get a fair return on our money. It is wrong of you to prevent us from using these observations that have, effectively, been VOLUNTARILY disclosed to us as agreed to in our EULA!”
Why do you think teenage males have higher auto insurance premiums? Why there are student discounts? Accident free discounts? etc. The ACTUARY hired by the insurance firm has correlated these trivial characteristics with their KNOWN history of associated costs. They can’t swear that you will cost them $X; but, they can be more sure than not that you will!
And, no, we have no facebook, linkedin, tiktok, twitter, reddit, etc. accounts. We “own” all of our music so there is no need to download anything. We don’t use any streaming services or cable – so, no one knows what (or if!) we are watching or listening to. HIPPA protects what our medical professionals can disclose and to whom, and for what purposes. No alexa. Possibly 8 amazon orders annually (no prime). Maybe an equivalent number of eBay purchases. Yet, we dont feel that we are deprived or constrained in any way.
If you have nothing to hide, you should have no problems releasing your tax returns to the public – after all, that’s just PRIVACY (which you seem to be implying is unimportant/forfeit). And, having your bank statements mailed to you on the backs of postcards. Surely anyone with accecss to the details of where you work, how long you’ve been there, what your peers are earning, etc. could make a pretty good guess!
Your spouse should have no qualms about installing a tracking app in your phone to know WHERE you are; and a keylogger on it (or your computer) to track your electronic transactions.
After all, this is your SPOUSE! Who could you possibly trust more??
[A friend once made the same “nothing to hide” argument to me, claiming HE had nothing to hide. I offered up these same examples. And, finished with, "And why haven’t you told your wife WHY you were at your previous girlfriend’s house the NIGHT BEFORE YOUR WEDDING??? Ooops! Maybe you DO have something to hide, eh?]
People who think they have nothing to hide are just self-deluding.