Surveillance Economy

The robots don’t need to take over the world in some Terminator-like war if the data can make people do the work for them. Most of us think by clicking or not clicking on a link keeps us in control of our decisions. Think again. Apps like TikTok can actually figure out what to serve you based on whether or not you’re typing. The rate at which your thumbs peck out letters or don’t peck them out might be of more value to data collectors than links you click on. But combining the two, clicking on links and then not doing anything for a little bit, may help data aggregators to learn more about you than you know about you.