The Rise of the Digital Silhouette
How much do you think about the traces of you, that you leave behind as you engage more and more with technology? There has been a not so subtle intrusion into what used to be our private lives where a lot of what we do and say is now recorded. Notice how apps on our smartphones want access to our photos, contacts, and location. Sure you can deny such access but then the value of the apps diminishes significantly, often to zero. Do you remember which apps you have given the go ahead to track your movements, your buying habits, your interactions with others, etc.? We use our digital tools in very trusting ways not really thinking about what the companies behind them might do with all that data about us. Google makes something like 97% ($32M) of their revenue from advertising – actually from us. Our use of their tools generates tremendously valuable data about human behavior including purchasing habits. They really should be paying us for our use of their tools! Google probably