Clever Fox Hound Writes @cleverfoxhound-writes - Tumblr Blog

moninils

And all of this at once.

brainstreams

dankmemeuniversity

ellipsus-writes

The idea behind surveillance capitalism is super simple: 1. collect as much data as possible. 2. fashion behavioral predictions from said data, tied to user profiles, 3. sell the predictions as a product to interested parties (advertisers; governments; whomever's buying. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

To extract this data, Google has developed an elaborate system to track who you message, what you buy, and where you go. Every click is accounted for.

It started with Search: Google logs every search you make, and every URL you visit across its platforms.

No log in, no prob: Google can track you by your IP address and its slew of cookies. On top of that there's Google Analytics, the largest cross-site tracker on the internet. Google's embedded trackers collect data on every page visit, the length of time, and what you click. (Not even incognito mode is... incognito.)

Next came Google suite—Docs, Gmail, etc—a veritable goldmine of metadata (or "data about data"). Meanwhile, Gmail tracks the sender of every email and its receiver, timestamps, and so on. (And we don't have to tell you how we @ Ellipsus feel about Docs... 🫣)

Phew—ok, that was a bit much. But if we're going to de-Google, it helps to look at the whole mess at once. There’s a lot to unpack. Wishing you strength and speed on this most important of journeys. 🤞 Onward and upward (and out of the Googleverse). - the Ellipsus Team xo

m1s0-s0ups

Drawing that i ALMOST scrapped

calware

spiritual successor to my email post

calware

ok this too

willgrahamscock

I have to make mistakes in order to learn & grow

willgrahamscock

I have to make bad art and fic in order to get better

writercultureis

Writer culture is this

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burntblueberrywaffles

[I.D. an edited version of the "is this a pigeon" meme. A man with glasses, captioned "my overstimulated ass" points at a butterfly, captioned "someone making an annoying noise". At the bottom of the image, a dialogue caption reads "is this a crime deserving the death sentence?" end I.D.]

creekfiend

people talk about how we need to bring back "don't feed the trolls" rhetoric for modern internet ragebait and I agree but also I think the most useful thing from the Old Internet that I miss is LURKING

be a lurker. just read things and think about them without feeling the need to weigh in or call out or disseminate everything you encounter. it's so nice and so freeing and it's a good way to learn things.

I have frequently regretted getting involved in shit that didn't involve me online but you know what I've never regretted doing? Lurking. literally lurk moar

ellipsus-writes

Once upon a time, Google "wasn't evil." Now it's too big not to be. When a company has this much power—too embedded to boycott, too rich to punish, too essential to regulate—it becomes a monster of itself, mowing down anything that stands in the way of profit.

This year we switch. We know, we know: deGoogling's a chore. But, like cleaning your room, we promise you'll feel much better when it's over. (The difference is, cleaning your room could never, you know, save the world…)

As motivation, we'll be showcasing Google's (staggering) assortment of evil deeds this month. From privacy and data misuse, to environmental and social malfeasance. It's all good (bad).

Today's post asks... Did we ever really choose Google? And when did it get so… gross?:

Read the full post over on the blog. - the Ellipsus Team xo