The Era of Mass Blackmail

Talk about the death of privacy, and some dumbshit will inevitably say, “just don’t do anything illegal!” In their limited minds, problem solved. But, set aside the debate on the purpose (and flaws) of law enforcement. The danger of Big Brother need not come from the State exercising its monopoly on violence with (flimsy) legal justification. Mass surveillance expands the exploit surface. Other attacks are more insidious and profitable.

Coincident with this era of mass surveillance is the era of mass social validation. Dopamine hits by means of omnipresent, always-on little📱. Thumbs up, 😀; absence of interaction, 😔. Such a computer-mediated mode of social interaction — divorced somewhat from the prior limits of time and space —renders us almost desperately vulnerable to attack by means of shame and embarrassment. Everyone can know something about you, near-instantaneously.

Here, the earlier idiot’s retort may take a slightly different form: “I have nothing to hide!” Oh? There is nothing you’ve ever done or said that could cause harm to you or someone you care about? Nothing that wouldn’t hurt your relationship with someone? A joke between friends shared with colleagues? That time you shit-talked your boss on your “privacy”-enabled facebook account? Something stupid you once did, shared with your mother or father? Girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, or wife?

Unless you live an asocial existence, you are exploitable.

Granting that argument, ask the next question: how technologically vulnerable am I? Increasingly, very. Already, Google knows everything about you. So, does your ISP. And, thanks to the Trump-Republican insurgency, the latter will soon be free to share your internet usage with the highest bidder. Or, really, any bidder. They don’t even have to label it as, “this is John Doe’s history.” AOL released search data for research purposes once. Without hours, researchers were able to successfully de-anonymize many users. And that was back in 2006. The contemporary commercial surveillance infrastructure is all-seeing.

Where else may you be vulnerable?

Again, all over.

A few weeks back en route to LAX, my Uber driver preemptively asked if I needed a charger. Soon to board a flight to New York, I said yes. It was thoughtful, like complementary water bottles. Then, as he handled me the cable, I saw it was plugged into a semi-obscured laptop, not a cigarette port. Suspicious, I declined. Could this have been an attempt to steal my information? Probably not. iPhones are well-hardened. But, the profitability of such an exploit is obvious.

Going one step further, imagine you, Malory, have a large-scale, malevolent agenda. Exposed sincerely, society would reject it as beneficial to you at the cost of everyone else. The Alices of the world would see it as plainly exploitative, and you would fail. How could you increase the probability of your success?

One well-covered tactic is to baffle the Bobs with bullshit. Especially effective: propagate bullshit that compels the them to believe that the Alices are Evil. Through the magic of misdirection, the genuine source of malevolence lurks out of perception. But, this only gets you so far. Many people will see through the ruse, and align themselves as your strong opposition. And, it’s hard to buy this group off, explicitly or implicitly (e.g. via lower taxes) — they’ve already chosen a side.

What do you do?

Well, you look through your massive database of accumulated material for sensitive information — Kompromat. Technology has made your reach near-universal. Do you have anything on some key player who can muddy the waters, confusing the Alices? Can you get one of them to throw a monkey-wrench into some institutional, protective process that frustrates your advance?

How hard would it be for a state-level actor to engage in such a practice?

Or, a commercial one.

Privacy fucking matters.