In a 2016 book titled L’Homme Nu (literally “The Naked Man”), French authors Marc Dugain and Christophe Labbé discuss how tech giants own our data – and essentially our lives. Being able to sell our private data to the highest bidder is, in the authors’ opinion, the real danger of the century. Not terrorism, not by a long shot.
Recent scandals have shed light on this danger and exposed parts of a very secretive industry: how companies profit from our information. Remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal? The controversial British company used the data of 87 million people (Brazilians included) with electoral intentions – pushing campaigns such as Brexit and Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential bid. Since the scandal broke, the firm folded, but its directors have another company waiting to take its business.
Countries have tried to tame this use of personal data. On May...
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