AI expert says: "There is an internet dossier about every single person"

Yvonne Hofstetter (49) entrepreneur, author and expert for artificial intelligence says in an interview that internet giants have created dossiers from every internet user since a long time. Hofstetter about smartphones, the "spies in our pocket" and lack of understanding.

It is not clear to us, what is being measured and saved.

Do you send sensitive emails, Mrs. Hofstetter?

Highly sensitive stuff like the manuscript for my new book I still sent by regular post. Otherwise I encrypt emails, because absolutely everything we "tell" the internet is retold. Absolutely everything.

Constance Kurz, speaker of the Chaos Computer Club once said, that nobody is more honest to anyone than to the google search bar...

That's right. Individuals only search for things they are really interested in. What people do, feel and plan is the thing Google, other search engines and social networks are interested in. Based on the data you enter you get profiled. Once profiled they know how you will behave in future. One must not lend oneself to illusions: Google is much more than just a search engine. Google is an international company that combines a large number of high tech, also military technology: artificial intelligence, military robots, drones and data glasses. Actually Google has started total surveillance.

In your book you write that you know everything and it is terrifying that nobody stops the world power fantasies of this company. World power fantasy?

It would be good if we take utterances coming from silicon valley serious. That is to say: Democracy should be abolished. And when programmers say that human beings are nothing more than machines that can be controlled perfectly these are views that are not compatible with European understanding, especially not with human dignity. Because another term for human dignity is self determination. And when I deny self determination, then I need - in the understanding of the technology giants - no democracy any more. That's what Google and other companies from Silicon Valley are targeting. They want to take humans their self determination away, with controlling him through manipulation. That's how they see things. That's how the world should work.

Lets get to an example...

Nowadays almost everybody has a smartphone. A smartphone is not a simple telephone. It's a measuring unit. To understand this better one can look at the hurricane research in the USA. Planes drop sensors that measure everything possible and gather data. The data being collected is analyzed and weather forecasts are created, predicting with how much speed and strength the hurricane will hit US east coast. The big temptation is transfer what works with natural phenomenons to society. To accomplish this, we need sensors as well. And on April 2007 Apple "throw" this sensors down upon us all - with the market launch of the IPhone. Since this time everybody carries this spy in the pocket.

Spy in the pocket?

It is well known, that a smartphone contains a microphone, camera, telephone and a GPS sensor. But the IPhone contains sensors you would never think of. For example temperature sensors are included. Sounds are monitored. Sounds that lie beyond human threshold of perception and are sent in a lot of TV commercials: Usually people have their smartphones right next to themselves while watching TV, making it possible for this device to monitor which advertisements you watch and connect this information to your profile. And: When and whom you call, all these things are monitored too. With having this metadata it can be calculated which character you have. Are you trustworthy? Do you have depressions? It is not necessarily about what you talk, only which time you have a phone call and with whom. It's really not clear to the most what is measured there and saved.

At some points in your book you utter your non understanding about how thoughtless the interconnected world accepts total surveillance.

It really takes time til people understand what's happening. Indeed, it's hard to understand, because the damage occurs delayed. What I post or like on Facebook today can have consequences years later but won't be connected to it mentally. Data processing is done algorithmically. Computer programs can find correlations in your data you would never think of.

There is often said: The one who has nothing to hide has nothing to fear. Is that wrong?

This sentence is very bad! Everybody has to cut this sentence out of his vocabulary! This sentence is a total misunderstanding about what analysts need and use this data for. It is absolutely not about digging in your past and looking at what you have done in the past. The past doesn't matter. It's all about the future. Raw data is collected to be able to influence our future in a controlling way. This big data processing companies, these internet and technology giants dream about global consumer controlling. They admit in a very open way that they want to know who you are, what you think, what you feel to be able to interfere in a manipulative way - into your future. The consumer has to be controlled. If you disclose your personal data you start an unprotected game. You surrender your future and self determination to others. You hand over the control of your rights - the rights to act financially sovereign, to act sexually sovereign, not being discriminated by algorithms. All this things you hand over to technological giants that interfere in a manipulative way.

But seriously, who is interested in all this data?

This data is not analyzed by people. It is analyzed by machines. Profiles are created. Profiles of every single person. This companies that create this profiles need - to reach their goal of global consumer controlling - data, lots of data. The more data they get the better. International, professional data brokers trade with this data. Data is the commodity of the 21th century. Technology giants want to reshape our society with this data. And they do it in a very unregulated way, almost in anarchy. In this context I talk about information capitalism - a new form of capitalism as ideology that goes along with digitization. And also in this case I don't want you to harbour illusions.

In what way?

About three years ago it turned out, that the US data broker Acxiom alone had collected 700 million profiles of internet users in the year of 2013. Therefor it can be assumed that there is a profile of almost everybody that has connected to the internet at some time or another. Like the German STASI had. Every internet user has his profile there containing over 3000 specific properties about the person. The problem is that people don't realize that this profiles exist and they make circles. Those profiles are sold.

To whom?

Big employers, big companies buy this data for millions of Dollar or Euros. And this profiles contain everything: Whether you are reliable or depressive, whether you are a homeowner, how big your family is, how big your financial requirements are, whether you have obtained some credit. Whether you are healthy. Which sexual orientation you have, whether you like to have a younger or older partner. For example: If you are male and like to watch Desperate Housewives than computer programs like the algorithms of Facebook could "think" that you are homosexual. People press this "Like" buttons and they have no idea about how much information they give to this companies.

Well, there are people who try to be very careful and try to leave as less tracks as possible. Is that useful?

Relatively little. It's very sad but that's the way it is. I always advice people to be very saving with their data: The less data you disclose the less it is possible to "read" something out of it, but if you use the internet you leave some tracks. Also tendency goes into the direction that this data is taken without ones own choice. The problem starts with Cookies. This small things every browser saves to your hard-drive is like an ID of your computer, a unique identification. With this you are traceable through the whole internet. Facebook for example follows you through the whole World Wide Web. Even if you are not logged in to your Facebook account. This is how a "digital twin" is created in the internet. You can't prevent that. And you even don't know if this data is correct or not! You don't know what's included in your own profile.

The technology being applied is taken from the arms industry

That's right. Arms industry has used this technology since 1990, most the time in the form of so called "multi sensor data fusion". Information is created and on the basis of this information control is being produced. This methods have found their way from military to the economy, where they are refined and expanded with huge investments. Google for example has a yearly budget of about 6 to 7 billion left for research and development. By the way, there are tight personnel interconnections between the Pentagon and Google.

Europe depends on the USA and we know how the USA is acting since Edward Snowden

We are totally dependent on US technology! Almost everybody has an IPhone or a Samsung and in the latter case there is Android from Google installed on it and everybody is using WhatsApp, Facebook and Amazon. All this things are from Silicon Valley, from a completely different understanding of law and constitution and this different understanding is implemented into the products. By the way: China has made itself independent from US technology, they have implemented their own technology. Chinese products are as big as American products but we don't use them because we distrust their products for an understandable reason. With US products we don't have any concerns although since Snowden everybody knows in which huge amount surveillance is taking place. We simply accept it. That's strange.

So the scary scenario George Orwell has created in his book "1984" has become reality for a long time? With the difference that we are not aware about it?

Exactly! Digital revolution is a silent one. And the silent is the dangerous. We do not realize what is creeping right in front of us til it comes so far, that we don't have a say regarding our own life. We won't be able to live our own life plan, because this surveillance will restrict our sovereignty in a way that we won't be able to move like we want. That's the future scenario we are heading to right now.

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