History
Most people know that Silicon Valley birthed the internet and the subsequent groundbreaking technology advances that followed. What most people do not know is that it was not the later development of the silicon semiconductor but instead the earlier technology used in World War II and the Cold War which set the stage for the explosive growth of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. The internet got its start in government secrecy and wartime urgency.
The first message ever sent between two computers was sent on the ARPANET between a computer at UCLA and one at The Stanford Research Institute in the late 1960s. ARPANET, was the Pentagon created packet switching network that gave birth to the modern-day internet.
A lot of history has taken place since the infancy of the internet in the form of the ARPANET, but what endures is the link between Big Tech and the government. We should not be surprised that the world of the internet, the world promised to us by the ARPANET, is increasingly looking like an always on surveillance device. That is what it was intended to be.
I bring up the origins of the internet not to scare you out of using the internet, it is a fantastic tool that has provided untold value to humanity, and has connected the world. However, it is important to remember that the internet is a military tool by design. Most of the public, blissfully unaware of this reality (or willingly ignorant of it) continue to record their every move in their Facebook LifeLog, flock like birds of a feather to ask Google their most intimate questions, and feed their personal data without a care into the latest fad foreign surveillance App with complete disregard for its ever-changing privacy policy.
The sad truth is that the online invasion of privacy is so pervasive that if you truly want to keep something private, you had best keep it off of the internet. Many people do not heed this advice but will instead argue that they have nothing to hide. Or they will brush the concern away by saying that governments and companies already have everything on them and it has not effected them yet. If that is truly the case would you still feel the same if I told you that there are real initiatives out there that wish to link your internet history to your credit score? How would you like it if you got your identity stolen and someone else filed your tax returns and you had to convince the IRS that this was the case? Online privacy is no joke and it is high time we start the process of clawing back our right to it. It starts here, by taking the time to learn proper online OPSEC practices.
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